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Albany, NY -- The Real Festivus?
So I'm home for a night before I go off to Chicago through New Years (so this is probably your last post from me) with my girlfriend Lila and friend Jackie and I figured it was time for an unrelated post. Festivus is actually a real holiday and in northwest PA, they're celebrating the holiday "for the rest of us."Time for us to have our annual feat of strength. Happy New Year!
Albany, NY -- Correction: Communist Story a Hoax
Last night wasn't too eventful... the highlight of the night was an excellent slice of sausage pizza at (mmm) SoHo on Lark St in Albany. We got in fairly early, so I was able to get up early this morning to rifle through the online news, and found that the story I mentioned last week about the government spying on a U-Mass Dartmouth student turns out to have been a hoax (Thanks Kos). Can't get 'em all right, I guess.
Albany, NY -- Sneak Preview of Festivus
About to go out... a preview of our Festivus night out:
Terk at his best
Albany, NY -- Week 16 NFL Picks
I'm skating on this ice here, still down $20 to K-Hole with only 2 weeks to go to even things out. This week could prove very interesting, as we only agree on five games this week. The picks: Buffalo (+14) at CincinnatiJB: Bills K-Hole: Bengals Pittsburgh (-7.5) at ClevelandJB: Steelers K-Hole: Browns San Diego (+1) at Kansas CityJB: Chargers K-Hole: Chargers Tennessee (+5.5) at MiamiJB: Dolphins K-Hole: Titans Jacksonville (-6) at HoustonJB: Texans K-Hole: Jags Detroit (+3) at New OrleansJB: Saints K-Hole: Lions Dallas (+5) at CarolinaJB: Cowboys K-Hole: Panthers New York Giants (+3) at RedskinsJB: Giants K-Hole: Redskins Atlanta (+3) at Tampa BayJB: Falcons K-Hole: Falcons San Francisco (+9) at St. LouisJB: Rams K-Hole: Rams Philadelphia (+1) at ArizonaJB: Eagles K-Hole: Cardinals Indianapolis (+7.5) at SeattleJB: Colts K-Hole: Seahawks Oakland (+13.5) at DenverJB: Raiders K-Hole: Broncos Chicago (-6.5) at Green BayJB: Bears K-Hole: Bears Minnesota (+3) at BaltimoreJB: Vikings K-Hole: Ravens New York Jets (+5) at PatriotsJB: Patriots K-Hole: Patriots
Albany, NY -- Jonathan Safran Foer on Hannukah
Jonathan Safran Foer, purportedly the best young Jewish writer out there (I wouldn't know -- even though I've read one of his books, I haven't read much else by Jewish writers) and author of the recently movie-fied Everything in Illuminated, gives his rather unique take on Hannukah in today's Times. A taste: A Hannukiah is like a menorah, but with room for eight candles. Or is it nine? An object of supreme importance, the hannukiah is passed down from generation to generation and is sometimes the only item in a Jew's suitcase. If you don't have the firmest of grasps on the extreme importance of the hannukiah, you should buy your children very expensive gifts this year. And if you don't have children, would it kill you to have some? Someone needs to inherit the hannukiah.On another holiday note, Happy Festivus!
Albany, NY -- The Strike Ends
I was in NYC all day, and I can say that the mood of the City really picked up when the transit workers' strike was called to an end today. I have to say that I was impressed by how well the nation's urban behemoth kept functioning through all of this, but I'm upset at how many of its denizens seemed to view the workers as bad guys. It does seem that the union leaders were a bunch of bumbling idiots -- did they get anything out of this other than fines?
Albany, NY -- Point for Tasini
As I mentioned last night, I e-mailed Jonathan Tasini's campaign to ask some questions. For the record, I did receive an e-mail promptly this morning to schedule a call. I'm hoping to chat with them on Friday, and I'll let you know more when I do.
Albany, NY -- Senate Blocks Drilling in ANWR
Coming back a little tipsy after the office holiday party, I came back to an e-mail from Ted "[Maria] Cantwell did the impossible!" Somehow, she managed to work up enough votes in the Senate to block drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR. I'm thrilled, not so much because it may keep wildlife from being disturbed (which is great; don't get me wrong), but because it it's just a poor, shortsighted solution to a long-term problem -- why conserve oil or look for cleaner energy sources when we can simply drill more? That's not the way I see the world.
Albany, NY -- Week 15 NFL Results
I got my first win of the season over K-hole this week: JB: 8-7 K-Hole: 7-8 Our overall record is now: JB: 31-30-2 K-Hole: 34-27-2 And, oops, we forgot to pick in the Indy/SD game, one of the best games of the year!
Albany, NY -- Wireless for Everyone, Even Appalachians
In response to an earlier post this evening, Combjelly asked me how rural and suburban areas can benefit from universal wireless. This NPR story explains how it's being done in West Virginia: About two years ago, Mike Chapman decided to help bring wireless Internet to the community where he grew up in Braxton County, W.Va. Chapman put on a climbing harness, shook back his aversion to heights and scaled a tower on a hill at the geographic center of the state to put a microwave dish on top. The dish receives a wireless signal from another tower 10 miles away and redistributes it to the homes nearby.So this is doable... my question stands, has Jonathan Tasini's campaign taken this into account?
Albany, NY -- Bush On Tape, Lying to America
Yes, them's strong words, but them's true. Yesterday, President Bush defended the NSA's use of wiretaps on phone calls without warrants. Well, in a video you can see here, Bush told us in April that the U.S. does not use such wiretaps without a court order (Thanks Alighieri). From the transcript: Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires — a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we’re talking about chasing down terrorists, we’re talking about getting a court order before we do so. It’s important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution.Oops. Bush lied. "Because we value the Constitution." If the above statement was a lie, does that means this administration, Bush included, does not value the Constitution? Shocker. Bush has said in the last few days that because of the need to act expeditiously when it comes to targeting Al-Qaida, he needs to have the ability to conduct phone surveillance without a court order. This argument is specious, according to David Sirota: In his news conference today, President Bush invoked the need for speed in the War on Terror as the reason he is illegally ordering the National Security Agency to conduct domestic surveillance without search warrants. Sounds like a compelling argument, right? In the fast-moving world of information age technology, we can't really afford to make our law enforcers take the time to go get a warrant, right?
It's true – Bush might have had a point, except for one tiny little detail he refused to discuss at his press conference: namely, the fact that current law is so lax that he is already permitted to get a search warrant 72 hours after surveillance is conducted. Put another way, the law currently allows Bush to order surveillance as fast as he possibly can, and allows surveillance operations to take place immediately. The only thing that is required is a court-issued warrant that can be ussed retroactively within 72 hours of when the operation started. And, as I've noted earlier, the special court that grants these warrants has only rejected 4 government requests in a quarter century, meaning getting a warrant is about as easy as it gets...that is, as long as you aren't trying to do something wholly outrageous and unrelated to the War on Terror.So why are they doing this, and why are they being so darned furtive about it? From MSNBC (Thanks Ted): No wonder Bush was so desperate that The New York Times not publish its story on the National Security Agency eavesdropping on American citizens without a warrant, in what lawyers outside the administration say is a clear violation of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. I learned this week that on December 6, Bush summoned Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger and executive editor Bill Keller to the Oval Office in a futile attempt to talk them out of running the story. The Times will not comment on the meeting, but one can only imagine the president’s desperation.There has to be more to this story... Why did they have to bypass the courts? Are they doing some extracurricular spying that the courts can't know about? Maybe on political opponents? It's simply speculation on my part, but it's clearly happened before, remember Watergate? Just while I've been composing this post, there's been a new twist. A judge on the court that would've needed to approve the secret wiretaps has resigned: U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, sent a letter to Chief Justice John D. Roberts Jr. late Monday notifying him of his resignation without providing an explanation.
Two associates familiar with his decision said yesterday that Robertson privately expressed deep concern that the warrantless surveillance program authorized by the president in 2001 was legally questionable and may have tainted the FISA court's work.How much more can this plot thicken?
Binghamton, NY -- Some Musings Regarding GM
The end of the year reports for GM are awful. If you search yahoo for "GM losses," take a look at what comes up. Report after report about how bad the company is doing. Everyone's just saying that GM's inefficient and that's why they're falling behind Toyota. I disagree. I think it's more of a quality issue. People are buying fewer GM cars because the quality is slipping. In fact, it's been slipping for the last fifteen years -- ever since GM shifted the bulk of their workforce to Mexico. As you know, I'm a fan of outsourcing if it means we get cheaper goods. But it should never come at the expense of quality. Sweatshop sneakers are one thing, but sweatshop automobiles just won't cut it. If GM wants to compete, they need to use a more highly skilled workforce (like Honda is doing in Alabama).
Albany, NY -- Wireless for Everyone
One thing that we do know Jonathan Tasini stands for is broadband internet service for everyone, as he states in on his website: Jonathan proposes that we spend $4 billion (less than the one-week cost of the Iraq war) to set up a nationwide wireless Internet network (WiFi). Working families can’t afford the $600-a-year cost of a connection that is slower than what people get in Japan or South Korea.
The benefit to New Yorkers would be stunning. A national Wifi network would cut peoples’ costs by hundreds of dollars a year—the monthly cost would range from $10-$20 per person and could be collected in a variety of ways (either as a city fee or by the non-profit authority created to run the system); there could be discounts for senior citizens and students, subsidized by slightly higher fees for businesses. And those people stuck with dial-up service—because they can’t afford the high fees charged by broadband service providers—would immediately be upgraded to a faster connection.
Wifi should be thought of as a public service, just like gas, water, and electric—all of which our government has made sure are universally available. Our government must act to make sure that large corporations (who are trying to prevent city-wide wireless connections) don’t deny our communities a resource that would bring a host of benefits...I've been discussing this since my trip to Hermiston, OR, in August -- it would help the populace become more informed and efficient, and while the telecoms may bitch and moan about how it would hurt them, in the long term we'd all be much better off. I do have some questions about how Jonathan came to his $4 billion figure, and about just what wireless for everyone means and how he'd overcome issues of security and bandwidth, and I've sent his campaign an e-mail. I'll be pretty impressed if they get back to me with solid answers. I've already given $100 to Tasini's campaign, and I might up that to $1K or more if I like what I hear. If I do, I'd encourage you, my loyal readers (there are a handful of you!) to do the same. Stay tuned. Speaking of ubiquitous wireless, RIM is insisting that its Blackberry service will continue, despite the ongoing lawsuit. If the company is right, that's great news for me, as I should be getting a new Blackberry 7130e in the coming week!
Albany, NY -- The Strike Begins
As threatened, transit workers in New York City have launched their strike, shutting down the city's bus and subway systems. Friends of mine have described Manhattan today as anywhere from "about the same" to "insane." But life goes on. I'm heading down on Thursday and will let you know what I see, and I'll probably take photos. The Christian Science Monitor does a good job explaining what's at stake here. I'm curious as to Jonathan Tasini's take on this; as of now, his site doesn't reveal anything. Seeing as he's a union lifer, I'd imagine he's taking the side of the workers, but that's not a given. From as much as I understand of all of this, the city is trying to cut benefits to the employees, especially new ones. As far as I'm concerned, you never, ever cut benefits to government employees. Their tradeoff for working in the public system is one of security over salary (try feeding, clothing, housing, and educating a family on the average salary of $55K in NYC), and you just can't take away those pensions or medical benefits. Period. And this is dispute appears to be all about the pensions. Remember, the blood, sweat, and tears of these people are what have made New York's mass transit system the marvelous juggernaut it is today!
Albany, NY -- Cold War Redux
I'm watching President Bush's rare press conference. He's discussing Iraq, as well The National Security Agency's controversial spying on people within our borders. He's completely unremorseful about the NSA's activities in face of the criticism. His response, very similar to House Speaker Dennis Hastert's response about the Abu Ghraib photographs, is that whomever let the press know that NSA was going this committed a "shameful act." How can we trust that the NSA is only spying on people with Al-Qaida connections, as Bush has said? Let's see what the Patriot Act has wrought... According to the Standard-Times, we're still going after Communists: A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book."
Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the UMass Dartmouth library's interlibrary loan program.
The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said.Bush: "It is inexcusable for the United States Senate to let this Patriot Act expire!" Now let's go out and defeat Khruschev...
Albany, NY -- Jews for Tasini
The Forward, a major Jewish newspaper, has picked up on Jonathan Tasini's run for Senate: In the latest sign of the growing discontent among left-wing activists, Jonathan Tasini, a product of the Labor Zionist movement, launched a bid to unseat Clinton in New York's Democratic senatorial primary next year. Tasini, who has been endorsed by the country's most prominent anti-war activist, Cindy Sheehan, says his main reason for running is to criticize Clinton's support of the war.... "It's not possible to support the war and support health care, support decent education and protection for the earth," Waskow said, stressing that he was speaking as an individual and not as head of the activist alliance with which he usually is identified, The Shalom Center. "Out of Jewish values, she should be addressing the huge power of the oil companies."
Tasini, the most prominent of several declared Clinton opponents in the Senate primary, is arguing that, among other things, the senator has hurt Israel by supporting the war.
"The war has made Israel less safe," Tasini told the Forward in a telephone interview. "It has destabilized the region and inflamed the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict.... making it harder to make a peace agreement."Could Tasini pick up some support from the Jewish left in New York? The Forward points out that "No serious political prognosticator believes that Tasini will be able to parlay the increasing anti-war sentiment among Democratic voters into a victory over Clinton," but can he at least help empower the progressives?
Binghamton, NY -- Sharon fine after mild stroke.
Sorry I've been posting a bit erratically but I've been backlogged with my research because of finals week. Anyway, to report, Sharon is fine and well after a mild stroke. He's not exactly in the best shape and he's 77 years old so the clock is ticking. The last Israeli Prime Minister to go to the hospital was Menachem Begin -- who established Israel's first peace treaty with an Arab nation. Hopefully Sharon can follow in his footsteps. Begin was also the leader of Likud and also went against the party in giving up Sinai in exchange for peace. Meanwhile Palestinians in Gaza are celebrating Sharon's stroke by firing guns and rockets. It's really unfortunate that they don't understand that Gaza is theirs because of Sharon. If the PA can't control the populace then the Road Map is never going to be carried out. Then again, Israel can't possibly hold onto all of the West Bank much longer, so expect to see Sharon carry out another unilateral move in his next term giving the Palestinians 90% of the West Bank (and thus 95% of the territories) with the major Arab suburban neighborhoods of Jerusalem (Abu Dis and A-Ram) as their new capital Al-Quds. Final borders could still be dealt with in peace talks, but something tells me not too much land is going to change hands in the end. And on an somewhat related note, Spielberg's new film Munich is coming out this Friday. My sister's boyfriend is in it. He plays one of the Israeli athletes that gets killed by a Palestinian terrorist. The film is about the Israeli response (i.e. wiping out the entire terror cell) to the terror attack in the Munich Olympics. I have a feeling it'll be equating the Israeli response to the terror attack that took place, and it'll probably be a little too Hollywood-esque, but hey, it's a movie. Go check it out.
Albany, NY -- Ariel Sharon Suffers Mild Stroke
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a mild stroke today and has been hospitalized. He's in stable condition, and is expected to be fine, but you have to wonder if he'll be able to run the country in the shape he's in for much longer. If anything happens to him, Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would take over.
Albany, NY -- Tiki for the Hall?
Congratulations to Tiki Barber, who broke the New York Giants' single game rushing record with 220 yards today in the Giants' 27-17 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. So, is Tiki a Hall-of-Famer? Until this year, I'd never have thought so. However, every single game, I'm more and more convinced that he is. Why? Well, aside from the fact that the man appears headed for an 1,800 yard rushing season, absolutely shattering the Giants' team record, he's a great receiver out of the backfield as well. Not a hell of a lot of running backs have been as good at both running and catching as he have. Comparing Tiki's stats to those of Marshall Faulk, probably the greatest running back of that genre of all time. Faulk will be finishing his career with about 19,000 yards from scrimmage. Tiki should end the season with about 13,500 total yards. Three more great seasons is probably too much to ask from a 30 year old back, but if he can manage two more seasons of 2,000+ total yards, he'll be close to 18,000, and if you add in his 1,200-odd return yards, he'd actually end up ahead of Faulk! I certainly never expected this from him, but any back you can comfortably mention in the same breath with Marshall Faulk has to be pretty special, no? Just as I write this post, the Broncos defeat the Bills, 21-17, leaving me with a 2-1 record against the spread today. Not bad, but one more field goal for Buffalo and I have a perfect Saturday!
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