The Great Ruairio

My friend Ruairi (pronounced Roo-ree) from Ireland is a great magician and definitely a mentor to me. This picture shows him in action doing close-up magic and just look at the reaction. Every magician is striving for reactions like that - Ruairi gets them all time.

Google Checkout

Google release "Google Checkout" today which is a Paypal type service. I heard rumors about this probably about a year ago.

Read this review for details.

Update: The main difference between Google Checkout and Paypal is that Google Checkout doesn't do person to person payments. The payee needs to have a website setup selling something in order to receive a payment. This service is focused on small web business. Who knows if they will expand it.

Grant-Lee Phillips: NINETEENEIGHTIES

I recently found out about Grant-Lee Phillips who is a folk musician. I came across his site because he recently released a record called NINETEENEIGHTIES that is all covers of 80's alternative music (back when alternative actually meant something) done in a modern folk style. I found this site because it was linked to from a Smiths/Morrissey blog that I follow. They linked to it because he covers a Smith's song on the album.

I am a big fan of the original songs and I really like his covers which are available on Itunes. When you search on Itunes use "Grant Lee" instead of "Grant-Lee". "Love my way" is probably my favorite.

This is a really cool album for those who grew up on these songs and hopefully younger folks will hear it too and maybe go back and discover some of the best stuff of the 80's.

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld

An important Supreme Court decision was made today. This decision basically blocks the Executive Branch (Bush) from being able to handle prisoners of the "War on Terror". They say that the Geneva convention does apply and if the Executive Branch wants to protest this, they will need Congress on board which is a huge win for our system of checks and balances in a time when the Executive Branch is pushing the limits of it's power and undermining checks and balances.

This blog entry explains in detail exactly what the ruling was about.

Here is a quote from the entry that sums it up:

"Nonetheless, opponents of monarchical power should celebrate this decision. It has been some time since real limits were placed on the Bush administration in the area of national security. The rejection of the President's claims to unlimited authority with regard to how Al Qaeda prisoners are treated is extraordinary and encouraging by any measure. The decision is an important step towards re-establishing the principle that there are three co-equal branches of government and that the threat of terrorism does not justify radical departures from the principles of government on which our country was founded."

Tri-Zonal Space Warper Turbo

Back in the 80's "That's Incredible!" was one of my favorite TV shows. On one episode they had this farmer guy on with his invention called a Tri-Zonal Space Warper which looked like this except that it wasn't digital - it was a large circular piece of wood spinning around. The basic idea is that you stare at it and it creates a sort of optical illusion with where everything you look at is in motion in a wave type of pattern. A few years ago the digital version floated around the internet. Now I've come across a new version that works even better. This rocks. Try it. Play the video and keep staring at it the whole time. Don't worry about making it full screen - it works great without doing that.



Via: VideoSift

Flag Burning Ban Amendment Fails

The Flag Burning Ban Amendment lost by one vote in the Senate. Listed below are the votes of the Democrats and the three Republicans who voted against it.


Democrats Against

Akaka (D-HI), Nay
Biden (D-DE), Nay
Bingaman (D-NM), Nay
Boxer (D-CA), Nay
Byrd (D-WV), Nay
Cantwell (D-WA), Nay
Carper (D-DE), Nay
Clinton (D-NY), Nay
Conrad (D-ND), Nay
Dodd (D-CT), Nay
Dorgan (D-ND), Nay
Durbin (D-IL), Nay
Feingold (D-WI), Nay
Harkin (D-IA), Nay
Inouye (D-HI), Nay
Kennedy (D-MA), Nay
Kerry (D-MA), Nay
Kohl (D-WI), Nay
Lautenberg (D-NJ), Nay
Leahy (D-VT), Nay
Levin (D-MI), Nay
Lieberman (D-CT), Nay
Mikulski (D-MD), Nay
Murray (D-WA), Nay
Obama (D-IL), Nay
Pryor (D-AR), Nay
Reed (D-RI), Nay
Sarbanes (D-MD), Nay
Schumer (D-NY), Nay
Wyden (D-OR), Nay


Democrats For

Baucus (D-MT), Yea
Bayh (D-IN), Yea
Dayton (D-MN), Yea
Johnson (D-SD), Yea
Landrieu (D-LA), Yea
Menendez (D-NJ), Yea
Nelson (D-FL), Yea
Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Reid (D-NV), Yea
Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Stabenow (D-MI), Yea
Feinstein (D-CA), Yea


Republicans Against

Chafee (R-RI)
McConnell (R-KY), Nay
Bennett (R-UT), Nay

How the Democrats voted for Iraq troop withdrawal

This article lists how the Democratic Senators voted for troop withdrawal from Iraq by the end of the year. The way this vote is phrased forces those with a moderate position to seemingly vote for not pulling troops out. I suspect that most of the Democrats who voted against removing troops by the end of the year hold a more moderate position of still supporting withdrawal, but just more gradually.

Here are the three positions as I see it:

1. Bush's "stay the course" until victory. "Victory" being defined (this week) as the establishment of a democratic Iraqi government that can secure it's own country and be an ally in the "war on terror". In addition, withdrawing is giving into the "terrorists" and they "will follow us where ever we go."

2. Gradual withdrawal. There are "mischief" makers in Iraq just waiting for the U.S. troops to leave to raise hell so while we do need to pull out, it should happen more gradually otherwise we will leave the Iraq in chaos.

3. Immediate withdrawal. Our continued military presence in Iraq is harmful to all parties and we should get out immediately.


My comments on these positions:

1. The conditions for "victory" are almost impossible and keep changing over time. The only reason Iraq is not a secure country is because the U.S. invasion dismantled the government. The result of this view in Bush's own words is that the end of the U.S. military involvement in Iraq "will be decided by future Presidents and generations". In other words, there is no end in sight for the occupation. The U.S. military is good at war, yet poor at occupation. The war was over a few weeks after the invasion began. Then the occupation mission began and has been a disaster. Since we are not good at occupation, we should get out now and save lives. The bit about the "war on terror" is simply absurd fear mongering.

2. The moderate view is non-sensical because gradual withdrawal doesn't really accomplish anything. If they believe withdrawal will enable mischief makers, then logically they should believe troops should stay until all mischieve makers are gone (never gone happen and the mischieve makers are not waiting for the withdrawl to cause mischieve, but rather engaging in it with a zeal) or the Iraqi government can deal with them on their own (now this view is really the same as #1). So even though this vote disguised the moderate view, in a way, it was accurate because the moderate view doesn't really make any sense.

3. The stated aims of continuing the occupation are nearly impossible to accomplish because occupation is the wrong tool (peace keeping is the correct tool and should probably be done by the UN). Five years of occupation and Billions of Dollars and Tens of Thousands of Lives later there really isn't much evidence that occupation is accomplishing anything good. One can easily conclude from the empircal evidence of the situation that the occupation is harmful to the effort to stabilize Iraq. In addition, it is the very presence of the U.S. military in Iraq that caused the instability. Just like with any sickness, the cure involves getting rid of the cause. This is not to say that things will be perfect after withdrawal, but at least they will have a better chance of recovering from the sudden dismantling of the government. Withdrawal will remove one aspect of the violence which is insurgency against the occupation. Very likely, civil war and a power struggle will continue, but that is to be expected when a power vacuum occurs - especially in a country with a volitile history of cultural and religious clashing. In choosing to invade, Bush should have been well aware of the situation he was creating.

Here is the list of the democrat votes:

For withdrawal by the end of the year:

Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI)
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), co-sponsor
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)
Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Sen. James Jeffords (I-VT)
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA)
Sen. John Kerry (D-Ma)
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), co-sponsor
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI)
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Against withdrawal by the end of the year:

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN)
Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE)
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV)
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE)
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND)
Sen. Mark Dayton (D-MN)
Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT)
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD)
Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI)
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI)
Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT)
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL)
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI)
Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)
Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO)
Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-MD)
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY)
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)

I'm proud of my own Senator from Oregon, Ron Wyden, who voted for withdrawal. I'm dissappointed to see certain names on the other list, namely Barak Obama and Dianne Feinstein.

Strangely, shortly after this vote against troop withdrawal, General Casey announced, well, a troop withdrawal.

Top 25 Songs

I love the song tracking feature in Itunes. I've had my IPOD mini for over two years now and every song played on it and in Itunes has been tracked. It's been interesting to watch the top 25 songs change over time. Here they are as of today:

Get Human

I heard about this website called "Get Human" on the radio today. It's a compilation of customer service call centers with details of how to get around the automated "press 3 to press 7" stuff and fast track yourself to speak to a person.

When I did phone support I remember many times answering the phone and the first thing the customer said was, "Oh thank god, a human being."

Brilliant idea.

Why does it take so long?

According to this article, 14 prisoners at Gitmo were released.

My question is: why did it take 5 years to figure out they hadn't done anything wrong?

Pollen

I live in the little red spot on the left coast and I have really bad grass pollen allergies. In fact, I live right by "grass seed capital of the world". The grass that gets me pollenates for the month of June. It's been a pretty good month (many thanks to the miracles of Flonase) but today has been rough. This map (from pollen.com) just made me laugh.

The Governator

Schwarzenegger has rejected the Bush administration's request for additional troops on the California/Mexican border because it would stretch the National Guard too thin. In addition, he feels troops on the border are not the solution to the illegal immigration problem.

This might be the first time that I agree with the Governator.

....and this time I mean it ...

I really want to be able to follow through and keep a consistent blog. So here I go again.