JD has a thing for poetry, and his friend Jeremy likes Rilke's Der Panther, which is all the excuse I need:

Der Panther
(Im Jardin des Plantes, Paris)

Sein Blick ist vom Vorübergehn der Stäbe
so müd geworden, daß er nichts mehr hält.
Ihm ist, als ob es tausend Stäbe gäbe
und hinter tausend Stäben keine Welt.

Der weiche Gang geschmeidig starker Schritte,
der sich im allerkleinsten Kreise dreht,
ist wie ein Tanz von Kraft um eine Mitte,
in der betäubt ein großer Wille steht.

Nur manchmal schiebt der Vorhang der Pupille
sich lautlos auf —. Dann geht ein Bild hinein,
geht durch der Glieder angespannte Stille —
und hört im Herzen auf zu sein.

I know the original by heart, and have even had the temerity to translate it:

The Panther
(In the Paris Botanical Gardens)
(Rainer Maria Rilke, trans.)

The bars it rubs on wear his vision down,
sweep by sweep on every coiled pass,
until he sees a thousand bars surround
him — and no longer any world behind the bars.

The padding heavy steps, the supple gait,
the tightening circles, turn and turn and turn,
are like a dance around a single point
in which a vast Will, hypnotised, stands stunned.

Only sometimes will the pupil’s curtain
silently slide open—. An image passes
in, moves through the taut limbs’ moveless tension,
reaches the heart, — and simply ceases.

There are about a zillion translations of that poem available, so here's another by Rilke that I've never seen in English, followed by my translation:

Irre im Garten
(Dijon)

Noch schließt die aufgegebene Kartause
sich um den Hof, als würde etwas heil.
Auch die sie jetzt bewohnen, haben Pause
und nehmen nicht am Leben draußen teil.

Was irgend kommen könnte, das verlief.
Nun gehn sie gerne mit bekannten Wegen
und trennen sich und kommen sich entgegen,
als ob sie kreisten, willig, primitiv.

Zwar manche pflegen dort die Frühlingsbeete,
demütig, dürftig, hingekniet;
aber sie haben, wenn es keiner sieht,
einer verheimlichte, verdrehte

Gebärde für das zarte frühe Gras,
ein prüfendes, verschüchtertes Liebkosen:
denn das ist freundlich, und das Rot der Rosen
wird vielleicht drohend sein und Übermaß

und wird vielleicht schon wieder übersteigen,
was ihre Seele wiederkennt und wieß.
Dies aber lässt sich noch verschweigen:
wie gut das Gras ist und wie leis.

The Insane in the Garden
(Dijon)
(Rainer Maria Rilke, trans.)

The old Carthusian cloisters still enclose
the yard, as though, within them, something heals.
They too, who live here now, have found repose,
and take no part in life outside the walls.

Possibilities have run like watercolour,
they now prefer a safer way to live;
they move on known paths, part and meet each other
as though they circled, willing, primitive.

Some nurture there the garden-beds of Spring,
humble, comfortless, down on their knees;
but even these have, when nobody sees,
a hidden gesture, a secret, twisted thing,

a gesture for the tender early grass,
a frightened testing, a timid soft caress:
the grass is friendly, but the red of roses
might somehow threaten them, might be excess

and might again be that which overwhelms
the world their souls know and recognise.
This one thing lets them keep it for themselves:
how good, how gentle and quiet is the grass.

And since I've only ever managed one other respectable translation, I figure I might as well add it here. The story goes that Goethe wrote the second poem suddenly and all at once on the wall of a mountain cabin where he was staying.

Wandrer’s Nachtlied I

Der du von dem Himmel bist,
Alles Leid und Schmerzen stillest,
Den, der doppelt elend ist,
Doppeld mit Erquickung füllest,
Ach, ich bin des Treibens müde!
Was soll all der Schmerz und Lust?
Süßer Friede,
Komm, ach komm in meine Brust!

Wandrer’s Nachtlied II

Über allen Gipfeln
Ist Ruh;
In allen Wipfeln
Spürest du
Kaum einen Hauch;
Die Vögelein schweigen im Walde.
Warte nur, balde
Ruhest du auch.

Wanderer’s Song at Evening
(JW von Goethe, trans.)

     I

Thou, who great in Heaven art -
Relievest every grief and pain,
To every twice-afflicted heart
Thy twofold Grace restor’st again -
I am grown weary of the strife:
Why doth desire never cease?
O wretched life!
O come into my heart, sweet Peace!

     II

Over every outcrop,
silence lies;
through every treetop
softly plies
the barest breeze;
the birds are quiet in the trees.
Only wait; you too will
soon be still.

You already know what happened:





Vichaar, Jay, Daily Kos and The Command Post are keeping lists of organisations accepting donations. Here are a few of them:

• American Red Cross in conjunction with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent (donate online here)
  
• Oxfam (donate online here)
  
• Save the Children (donate online here)
  
• CARE Australia (donate online here)
  
• UNICEF (donate via this page)
  

I know it's always something, and I'm always after you to put your hand in your pocket. But as Sisyphus Shrugged points out, our so-called leaders are full of hot air and pigshit when it comes time to step up and act like a human being. The rich will shrug, or flinch if their consciences are really acting up today, and politicians will get to preen for the cameras because they sent a few moldy tents and leftover cans of beans, and the poor don't have anything to give. But you reading this, very nearly all of you, you have disposable income or you wouldn't be online. You can spare ten bucks -- and yes, you can do it every time there's a crisis like this.

Listen: there are people suffering. People, not numbers, not brown anonymous faces on the TV: people just like you and me, only they just got their lives fucked by an earthquake and a billion tons of water. Be a mensch, give a little.

Update, from Stavros: map didn't bring it home? Found my words empty or insulting? Here's another way to look at what happened:

I wouldn't normally post a picture like that, but it's tearing at my guts. It's my hope that no one can look at that dead man's face, so calm there in that flick of a tourist's shutter, and not break open and spill a little money for the relief effort.

Update the second: He didn't die! Hedidn'tdiehedidn'tdiehedidn'tdie!!! WOOOO-HOOOOOO!!!! Someone yanked him out of there moments after the photo was taken. (via Stav again, also in comments) (also, photo: Hellmut Issels)

Jessica Wilson at For the Record has a recent series of posts concerning left- and right-wing political agendas, and I think she's come up with something very useful. She began with the observation that "right-wingers" (aka "conservatives", "Republicans") are not very good at argument, which she then developed a little further in response to a letter from a self-identified conservative.

It has been interesting to consider the prospects for the stated purpose of Left2Right; that is, for progressives and independents... to engage in reasoned discourse with right-wingers and conservatives (so-called) about such issues as are presently facing the nation. The comment threads are fairly illuminating on this score. Dividing through by right/left content, it's all too easy (with sadly few exceptions) to identify the right-wingers by their poor skills at writing and argumentation... The failures of argumentation that are frequently manifest are the sort that characterize the writing of my worst students...

This is, I'm sure, a phenomenon familiar to most regular blog readers. The obvious question, though, is what's driving it? I recommend reading all of the FTR posts I'm linking, but what I want to talk about here is the idea that what underlies the difference in argumentation (style and quality) is a stark difference in goals. Progressives have no need for enthymematic or otherwise sophistic argument: they are following an agenda which is politically defensible and logically consistent. The right, in contrast, is following a regressive agenda which is fully opposed to the good of most people and must therefore rely on misdirection and appeal to the baser impulses in order to gather electoral support. Thus a lot of right-wing argument is either deliberately deceptive or muddled and confused, depending on whether the individual in question is a dupe or a would-be oligarch. There are, of course, exceptions, but I think that's broadly correct, and I think it's fundamental to any consideration of US politics, particularly for progressives wondering what the sweet holy fuck to do about Smirky the killer clown and his handlers, minions and stooges how to recover from recent setbacks.

This view is not especially new, but Wilson goes one very useful step further and boils the progressive agenda down to two key principles:

(P-1) That the interests of the many should not be sacrificed to sustaining and increasing the wealth and the power of the wealthy and powerful few.

(P-2) That unsound ideology, provincial prejudices, and antiquated religious doctrines should not be enshrined, encouraged, or used to guide public policy.

and argues that the majority of progressive policies derive from these central principles. Again, I think she's right; see the linked post for examples. The right-wing agenda, then, can be summarized as opposition to the progressive one:

(R-1): That the wealth and the power of the wealthy and powerful few should be sustained and increased, even if this means (as it frequently does) sacrificing the interests of the many.

(R-2): That it is acceptable, and even encouraged, that (since the many are generally not on board with policies that explicitly involve sacrificing their interests in service of the goal expressed in R-1) various ideologies of unsound factual and theoretical basis be forwarded, and various provincial prejudices and antiquated religious doctrines be encouraged (by way of distraction) and enshrined (by way of "payback" for votes), as a basis for public policy.

Positing (R1), a moment's reflection provides a host of examples for (R-2). Just off the top of my head: trickle-down economics, free market worship, antipathy to science, the current invented-out-of-whole-cloth social security "crisis", appeals to homophobia (this year's anti-gay marriage ballots, Bush's proposal to enshrine homophobia directly in the Constitution), racism and xenophobia ("Kerry looks French!") and anti-intellectualism (Dubya's whole persona), and pandering to the religious right (on stem cells, abortion, sex education).

I have just one quibble: I'd delete the word "antiquated" because I don't think it's doing any useful work there (separation of church and state applies to any doctrine, regardless of pedigree) and because in that context it smacks of knee-jerk anti-religionism (something I'm sensitive to because I'm prone to it myself). Otherwise, I think this is a valid and powerful framework within which to analyse right-wing politics. Wilson even provides a worked example to illustrate the method.

Finally, following also from George Lakoff's arguments about framing, all of the above got me to thinking: let's have an accurate term for our opponents. I'm not necessarily opposed to conservative or Republican aims per se, and "right-wing" invites the use of "left-wing" which, thanks to the mighty Wurlitzer, has become a slur. My aims are progressive, so my opponents are Regressives. Anyone whose politics reduce to (R-1)+(R-2) above is following a regressive agenda. Even if "regressive" doesn't stick (and it probably won't, being clumsier to my ear than "right-wing"), I think it useful to get away from the sullied "leftist" and promote the much more slur-resistant "progressive".

PZ Myers bemoans the lack of detailed knowledge of the history of biology endemic in the tech field, as revealed by the backstory of the Open Darwin mascot:

Once my platypus was chosen someone suggested that we use "Hexley" as the name of the new mascot since Darwin's assistant was named Hexley. It turns out we were wrong and the person we were referring to was actually Thomas Henry Huxley. Huxley was not Darwin's assistant but was a prominent English biologist in his own right. [...] By the time we found out our mistake "Hexley" had escaped into the ether and we felt that it was too late to change the name to "Huxley".

Quoth the good Professor:

Oooh. Ow. How embarrassingly ignorant. It’s bad enough that “someone” was so cavalier about the facts that they would toss out that misremembered rationale in the first place, but then for it to bounce around on a mailing list and no one noticed…ick.

Give me a break. Lack of information concerning one specialized field doesn't make someone working in an entirely different specialized field "embarrassingly ignorant". Whoever got Huxley's name and career wrong could no doubt reel off half a dozen names unknown to Prof Myers and sneer at him for his "embarrassing ignorance" too.

Then, in the next entry, one Sarah Ives finds herself labelled "credulous, bad [and] lazy" for "peddling lies to children" in this story.

According to the Bible, Noah was protecting the animals from a great flood. [...] some historians think Noah lived in the [Mt Ararat] area, if he in fact was a real man [...] Not everyone is convinced that McGivern and his group have found Noah's ark. There is still no proof that the ark exists.

(emphasis mine) The story includes a quote from McGivern, another from someone credible who thinks it's highly unlikely and another from someone just pointing out that the mountain in question is a bugger to climb. Granted the title is a bit sensationalistic, but where are the terrible, horrible, child-corrupting lies? I hardly think Ms Ives' piece qualifies as religious propaganda, however hard mention of his least favourite mythology makes Prof Myers' knee jerk.

As it happens, spousal unit and I have just taken up a subscription to National Geographic, partly because we were so pleased to see that the answer they gave to this question was a resounding and uncompromising NO. Thanks all the same, Professor, but we won't be cancelling anything just yet.

Update: (via Richard Chappell in the comments to PZM's thread) A few months after the article that has PZM (and now Brian Leiter) telling me to cancel my subscription, Nat Geo came down hard on the Arkspedition, calling it a publicity stunt and quoting a swarm of skeptics.

Sphincterine. I'm not kidding. There's even a mascot: Pucker the chocolate starfish.

Truly these are the End Times.

(Blame Defective Yeti for this.)

I have something of an obsession with sunlight.

I'm often bored waiting for the bus.

According to a study carried out by Cornell University's Media and Society Research Group:

About 27 percent of respondents said that all Muslim Americans should be required to register their location with the federal government, and 26 percent said they think that mosques should be closely monitored by U.S. law enforcement agencies. Twenty-nine percent agreed that undercover law enforcement agents should infiltrate Muslim civic and volunteer organizations, in order to keep tabs on their activities and fund raising. About 22 percent said the federal government should profile citizens as potential threats based on the fact that they are Muslim or have Middle Eastern heritage. In all, about 44 percent said they believe that some curtailment of civil liberties is necessary for Muslim Americans [i.e. agreed with at least one of those statements ---Ed].

Conversely, 48 percent of respondents nationally said they do not believe that civil liberties for Muslim Americans should be restricted.

Given that they likely voted for Bush, himself a big talking physical coward, I'm more inclined to believe that more self-identified Republicans than Democrats are chickenshit:

About 40 percent of Republican respondents agreed that Muslim Americans should be required to register their whereabouts, compared with 24 percent of Democratic respondents and 17 percent of independents. Forty-one percent of Republican respondents said that Muslim American civic groups should be infiltrated, compared with 21 percent of Democrats and 27 percent of independents.

On whether mosques should be monitored, about 34 percent of the Republicans polled agreed they should be, compared with 22 percent of Democrats. Thirty-four percent of Republicans said that profiling of Muslim Americans is necessary, compared with 17 percent of Democrats.

It's not just Muslim Americans whose rights appear to be in danger of being eroded by pusillanimous self-interest:

Happily, this is one of those rare surveys where you can actually get at the methodology and the questions asked (although they don't provide an actual script) -- the full report is available online (pdf), and additional methodological information is available on request. Kudos. Despite my reluctance to believe the numbers, I can't see any obvious major flaws in the study (which doesn't mean there aren't any -- I'm hardly an expert). The results are taken from 715 completed telephone interviews and weighted by age, gender and race (presumably to reflect national breakdowns, though the report doesn't say). Responses to the statements were on a 1-10 scale, so it would have been nice to see a breakdown by strength of dis/agreement, but they simply took 1-5=disagree, 6-10=agree. They also looked at measures of attention to TV news, knowledge of Islam, personal religiosity and fear of terrorism (all of which, I think, were a bit simplistic) and the interaction between those factors and attitudes to curtailment of civil liberties. It's worth a read, and so is the less publicized companion report on attitudes to the War on Terror, U.S. Foreign Policy and Anti-Americanism (pdf). All of this, by the way, courtesy of Brown Equals Terrorist, where Ian is doing a bang-up job of keeping tabs on the state of American civil liberties.

It's usually dark when I leave work, so I made much of this sunlight.

Dear Mayor Tremblay:

I am writing to ask you to intervene in the legal proceedings against a resident of your city, the stencil artist known as Roadsworth. Don't prosecute the man, hire him! His work in no way detracts from the function of the road markings he embellishes, and in fact adds to them the many serious and important functions of public art. He adds to the daily lives of Montreal's pedestrians a touch of whimsy, an opportunity for reflection, a little beauty in the midst of the mundane: surely this is a public good, not the public mischief with which the artist is charged. I understand that one cannot declare the streets an open canvas, but I am certain that a compromise can be reached in the case of an artist whose work is of real value to the city, and is entirely without malice.

Sincerely, etc.

Background here, profile of Roadsworth here, more of his work here and here.

I'll probably continue to post self-portraits every now and then; it'll be interesting to watch me age. Interesting to me, I mean. What, you thought I did this for other people to read?

There's a whale wandering around the Pacific on his/her own, calling in a voice unlike any other whale's. Not much info to be had; here's the whole article by Rhiannon Edward in the Scotsman (the story is from the Dec 11 issue of New Scientist but it's not in the online version):

A LONE whale with a mysterious voice that matches no other species has been discovered roaming the Pacific, it was revealed yesterday.

The whale has been wandering across the ocean for the past 12 years. Researchers identified it after listening to recordings made by the United States Navy’s submarine-tracking hydrophones.

Mary Ann Daher, a marine biologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, used the partly declassified records to trace the movements of whales in the north Pacific. They show that one whale singing at a frequency of about 52 hertz has cruised the ocean every autumn and winter since 1992.

Its calls do not match those of any known species, though they are clearly those of a baleen, the family that includes blue, fin and humpback whales.

Blue whales typically call at frequencies between 15 and 20 hertz. They do use some higher frequencies, but not 52 hertz, New Scientist magazine reported.

The tracks of the lone whale also do not match the migration patterns of any other species.

New Scientist reported: "Over the years, the calls have deepened slightly, perhaps because the whale has aged, but its voice is still recognisable. Ms Daher doubts that the whale belongs to a new species, although no similar call has been found anywhere else, despite careful monitoring."

Whales of most species spend considerable time alone, so a solitary whale is not unusual, and even if though this one has never been recorded together with any other calls that doesn't mean he/she is always alone. Nonetheless, it's difficult to resist anthropomorphising and feeling sad for the poor lonely whale with the odd high-pitched voice. (Updated 041210. Abstract in Deep Sea Research is here.)

(followup to this post)

Democracy means you get one vote per election, but the influence of money on politics means you get another kind of vote every time you buy something. Choose The Blue gives you a guide to voting Democrat with your dollars. (They might think about changing the name for the next election cycle, when the incumbent will likely be coloured blue.)

For instance: of fifteen gasoline retailers listed, only one (Shell) donated more to Dems than to Repubs. Similarly, of 17 car manufacturers only Toyota donated more to Dems. Even these two companies hedged their bets, 57/43 and 74/26 respectively, and Toyota dealers skewed strongly Republican, so you might consider buying a bike; unfortunately, Choose The Blue doesn't yet list bicycle manufacturers. If you have to have a car, you also have to insure it, so give Progressive Insurance first refusal on your business if you can. If you want a car stereo, buy Sony; that goes for other kinds of consumer electronics as well.

And so on, and on. Every purchase you make has political ramifications. Politically informed consumer choices are not only an essential component of living according to your principles, but also a powerful and relatively easy way to have an impact on the political process.

Of course, "relatively" covers a lot of ground, and the primary barrier to informed consumer choice is a lack of information. As good as Choose The Blue is, there are a lot of things it doesn't yet cover -- like, say, bicycle manufacturers. If you know the relevant company or individual names, you can do a soft money search or donor lookup at opensecrets.org, the website of the Center for Responsive Politics. The power search at Follow The Money allows you to look at donations in State politics (note that the interface is a bit screwy and takes some getting used to). Political Money Line is selling information, but makes some available for free; this includes individual donations (including 527s) and industry totals (hard money only) grouped according to NAICS. Of course, you can always go to the source and run a disclosure data search at the Federal Election Commission, but the search interface is very limited and section 527 advocacy groups don't have to file with the FEC anyway. They can file with the relevant state government, some of which may provide that information to the public, or the IRS which, at least on its website, doesn't seem to. [An aside: the difference between hard and soft money is explained in some detail here, and more briefly here.]

So, to return to the example at hand: who the hell knows the names of bicycle manufacturers? I tried searching for a few common brand names (Schwinn, Mongoose, Trek, Giant) but didn't get anywhere: you need the parent company's name. Or more accurately, you need the name under which the donation was made; for a number of reasons (not all of them related to malfeasance!) that could be hard to find. For example, it turns out that Schwinn and Mongoose are both owned by Pacific Cycle, which is owned by Dorel Industries; neither of those names turns up anything useful either. So then I figured, maybe industry totals would be useful. At Follow The Money, using "selected business" we find that "sporting goods sales & manufacturing" donated a total of $11,850, mostly to Dems, across all states in 2004. At Political Money Line, industry totals-->manufacturing tells us that "sporting and athletic goods, nec" (what does the "nec" mean?) donated $56,000 to Dems and $20,500 to Repubs in 2003-4. (But if you check the NAICS, it turns out that bicycles fall under "Motorcycle, Bicycle, and Parts Manufacturing", not "Sporting and Athletic Goods Manufacturing", and you have to subscribe to Political Money Line to dig any further.) Those are all small amounts of money relative to the hundreds of millions being splashed around during the election cycle, but it's not at all clear where bicycle manufacturers fit in and we have no federal or soft money data. If I'm trying to buy a bike and avoid Republican supporters, none of that helps.

There are ways around this lack of information, to some extent. I can't find out about manufacturers, but I can check out the dealers: for instance, here in Portland I might consider buying my bike from The Bike Gallery (first result of a Google search). A quick search of their website turns up the name of the owner, and opensecrets.org tells me that he donated $2300 to Dem candidates and $2000 to the Bikes Belong Coalition -- so I'd be happy to shop there.

Even if Choose The Blue develops (as I hope they will) a really comprehensive database, their focus is at the level of brands and parent companies, so it looks as though there's no substitute for that sort of detailed research at the local level. I plan to put together a little collection of information on the local businesses I frequent, so it occurs to me that a central repository for such information might be a useful thing. Anyone out there want to build it? I'd certainly be willing to help out with design and costs.

Pericat has been dreaming, and quite possibly drinking, and writing. Right now, or as soon as you can, whatever you're doing, take a break; sit yourself down all comfy, with cookies and milk or a hot toddy or whatever you feel like, and go read her daydream. You can thank me later. (It made me feel all warm and fuzzy, especially the bit about getting mud all over the man from the gummint and poking at him with a fishing pole.)

Dear Atrios,

I've been reading your site pretty much since you started, and I think you are performing an invaluable service; I only wish the mainstream media did such a good job of political reporting. That's why I'm writing to ask: what is with this "Mars, bitches" stuff? I cringe every time I see it; it's a jarring note on an otherwise excellent site. I know it started with Bush mangling the space program, and I'm sure the intent is humor. Nonetheless, it's a highly public use of sexist language, and inherently damaging in a culture that still treats women as second class citizens in many ways.

I hope you'll think about ditching that particular expression.

Sincerely, etc.

If you must buy stuff this Xmas, buy it from the Good Guys, ok?

Good:
* Price Club/Costco donated $225K, of which 99% went to democrats;
* Magla Products (Stanley tools, Mr. Clean), $22K, 100% to democrats;
* Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, $153K, 99% to democrats;
* Estee Lauder, $448K, 95% to democrats;
* Guess ? Inc., $145K, 98% to democrats;
* Calvin Klein, $78K, 100% to democrats;
* Liz Claiborne, Inc., $34K, 97% to democrats;
* Levi Straus, $26K, 97% to democrats;
* Olan Mills, $175K, 99% to democrats.
* Gallo Winery, $337K, 95% to democrats;
* Sonic Corporation, $83K, 98% democrat;
* Triarc Companies (Arby's, T.J. Cinnamon's, Pasta Connections), $112K, 96% Democrats;

Bad:
* WalMart, $467K, 97% to republicans;
* K-Mart, $524K, 86% to republicans;
* Home Depot, $298K, 89% to republicans;
* Target, $226K, 70% to republicans;
* Circuit City Stores, $261K, 95% to republicans;
* 3M Co., $281K, 87% to republicans;
* Hallmark Cards, $319K, 92% to republicans;
* Amway, $391K, 100% republican;
* Kohler Co. (plumbing fixtures), $283K, 100% republicans;
* B.F. Goodrich (tires), $215K, 97% to republicans;
* Proctor & Gamble, $243K, 79% to republicans;
* Coors, $174K, 92% to republicans; (also Budweiser - sd)
* Brown-Forman Corp. (Southern Comfort, Jack Daniels, Bushmills, Korbel wines, Lennox China, Dansk, Gorham Silver), $644, 80% to republicans;
* Pilgrim's Pride Corp. (chicken), $366K, 100% republican;
* Outback Steakhouse, $641K, 95% republican;
* Tricon Global Restaurants (KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell), $133K, 87% republican;
* Brinker International (Maggiano's, Brinker Cafe, Chili's, On the Border, Macaroni Grill, Crazymel's, Corner Baker, EatZis), $242K, 83% republican;
* Waffle House, $279K, 100% republican;
* McDonald's Corp., $197K, 86% republican;
* Darden Restaurants (Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Smokey Bones, Bahama Breeze), $121K, 89% republican;
* Mariott International, $323K, 81% to republicans;
* Holiday Inns, $38K, 71% to republicans

Ugly:
* Hyatt Corporation, $187K, 80% to democrats;
* Rite Aid, $517K, 60% to democrats;
* Warnaco (undergarments), $55K, 73% to democrats;
* Southern Wine & Spirits, $213K, 73% to democrats;
* Joseph E. Seagrams & Sons (includes beverage business, plus considerable media interests), $2M+, 67% democrats.
[Texeira had these in the "with us" section, but I say screw the bet-hedging bastards.]

(from Donkey Rising via Digby)

I haven't written much about the war in Iraq because, really, what can I say? There are only so many synonyms for "horrific". But now Mark Morford reminds me that there is one thing to say, one very important thing: this is what it's like (WARNING: graphic images).

If you can't handle seeing what really goes on in a war, maybe you don't deserve to support it. If you can't stomach the truths of what our soldiers are doing and how brutally and bloodily they're dying and in just what manner they have to kill those innocent Iraqi civilians in the name of BushCo's desperate lurch toward greed and power and Iraqi oil fields and empire, maybe you don't have the right to stick that little flag on your oil-sucking SUV. Clear enough?

Damn straight. The link goes to Fallujah in Pictures (I follow River's spelling, and everyone should follow her blog), and I warn you again: it's tough to look at. But if you still cling to some callow notion of the "glory of war" -- if you still think there was or is any justification for this illegal, immoral invasion -- if you have ever used the term "raghead" -- if you believe or hope that there's still a chance for the US to set things right on its own -- if you can fool yourself for even a second that history will see this as anything but a vile stain on our permanent record -- then you had better go look. It's the very least you can do.

Mona Van Duyn is dead at 83. There is some information at Modern American Poets, and the Academy of American Poets has a brief bio and three of her poems, including one of my favourites, which I've pasted below. I nicked the image from the St Louis Walk of Fame. (Via Dumbfoundry, of course.)

Letters from a Father

    I

Ulcerated tooth keeps me awake, there is
such pain, would have to go to the hospital to have
it pulled or would bleed to death from the blood thinners,
but can't leave Mother, she falls and forgets her salve
and her tranquilizers, her ankles swell so and her bowels
are so bad, she almost had a stoppage and sometimes
what she passes is green as grass. There are big holes
in my thigh where my leg brace buckles the size of dimes.
My head pounds from the high pressure. It is awful
not to be able to get out, and I fell in the bathroom
and the girl could hardly get me up at all.
Sure thought my back was broken, it will be next time.
Prostate is bad and heart has given out,
feel bloated after supper. Have made my peace
because am just plain done for and have no doubt
that the Lord will come any day with my release.
You say you enjoy your feeder, I don't see why
you want to spend good money on grain for birds
and you say you have a hundred sparrows, I'd buy
poison and get rid of their diseases and turds.

    II

We enjoyed your visit, it was nice of you to bring
the feeder but a terrible waste of your money
for that big bag of feed since we won't be living
more than a few weeks long. We can see
them good from where we sit, big ones and little ones
but you know when I farmed I used to like to hunt
and we had many a good meal from pigeons
and quail and pheasant but these birds won't
be good for nothing and are dirty to have so near
the house. Mother likes the redbirds though.
My bad knee is so sore and I can't hardly hear
and Mother says she is hoarse from yelling but I know
it's too late for a hearing aid. I belch up all the time
and have a sour mouth and of course with my heart
it's no use to go to a doctor. Mother is the same.
Has a scab she thinks is going to turn to a wart.

    III

The birds are eating and fighting, Ha! Ha! All shapes
and colors and sizes coming out of our woods
but we don't know what they are. Your Mother hopes
you can send us a kind of book that tells about birds.
There is one the folks called snowbirds, they eat on the ground,
we had the girl sprinkle extra there, but say,
they eat something awful. I sent the girl to town
to buy some more feed, she had to go anyway.

    IV

Almost called you on the telephone
but it costs so much to call thought better write.
Say, the funniest thing is happening, one
day we had so many birds and they fight
and get excited at their feed you know
and it's really something to watch and two or three
flew right at us and crashed into our window
and bang, poor little things knocked themselves silly.
They come to after while on the ground and flew away.
And they been doing that. We felt awful
and didn't know what to do but the other day
a lady from our Church drove out to call
and a little bird knocked itself out while she sat
and she brought it in her hands right into the house,
it looked like dead. It had a kind of hat
of feathers sticking up on its head, kind of rose
or pinky color, don't know what it was,
and I petted it and it come to life right there
in her hands and she took it out and it flew. She says
they think the window is the sky on a fair
day, she feeds birds too but hasn't got
so many. She says to hang strips of aluminum foil
in the window so we'll do that. She raved about
our birds. P.S. The book just come in the mail.

    V

Say, that book is sure good, I study
in it every day and enjoy our birds.
Some of them I can't identify
for sure, I guess they're females, the Latin words
I just skip over. Bet you'd never guess
the sparrow I've got here, House Sparrow you wrote,
but I have Fox Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Vesper Sparrows,
Pine Woods and Tree and Chipping and White Throat
and White Crowned Sparrows. I have six Cardinals,
three pairs, they come at early morning and night,
the males at the feeder and on the ground the females.
Juncos, maybe 25, they fight
for the ground, that's what they used to call snowbirds. I miss
the Bluebirds since the weather warmed. Their breast
is the color of a good ripe muskmelon. Tufted Titmouse
is sort of blue with a little tiny crest.
And I have Flicker and Red-Bellied and Red-
Headed Woodpeckers, you would die laughing
to see Red-Bellied, he hangs on with his head
flat on the board, his tail braced up under,
wing out. And Dickcissel and Ruby Crowned Kinglet
and Nuthatch stands on his head and Veery on top
the color of a bird dog and Hermit Thrush with spot
on breast, Blue Jay so funny, he will hop
right on the backs of the other birds to get the grain.
We bought some sunflower seeds just for him.
And Purple Finch I bet you never seen,
color of a watermelon, sits on the rim
of the feeder with his streaky wife, and the squirrels,
you know, they are cute too, they sit tall
and eat with their little hands, they eat bucketfuls.
I pulled my own tooth, it didn't bleed at all.

    VI

It's sure a surprise how well Mother is doing,
she forgets her laxative but bowels move fine.
Now that windows are open she says our birds sing
all day. The girl took a Book of Knowledge on loan
from the library and I am reading up
on the habits of birds, did you know some males have three
wives, some migrate some don't. I am going to keep
feeding all spring, maybe summer, you can see
they expect it. Will need thistle seed for Goldfinch and Pine
Siskin next winter. Some folks are going to come see us
from Church, some bird watchers, pretty soon.
They have birds in town but nothing to equal this.

So the world woos its children back for an evening kiss.

Just a quick note for anyone sending trackback pings (hi, T, pericat!): they work, but don't show up until I rebuild the site. I have no idea why this should be so, or how to fix it, and no way am I upgrading asking the spousal unit to upgrade me to a later version of MT until the bugs are ironed out, so in the meantime please just bear with me. I get email notification of comments and pings, so I'll rebuild as soon as I see a ping.

Tangentially: Jay did a wonderful thing building MT-Blacklist and setting it free, and I'm appropriately grateful for all the time and hassle it's saved me; similarly, niggly bugs and all, I like MT. I haven't paid a dime for either product, so I can't -- and don't mean to -- complain here. But at the same time, I won't be paying SA for software that I can see in advance is substantially more problematic than the setup I have. I think the company's track record indicates that they will listen to feedback and solve the problems, so I'm just going to sit back and be a late adopter this time.

In looking for news about Frances Newton's case, I came across three others with similarly pressing deadlines: Thomas Bowling's execution has been postponed to allow two related cases to clear, Charles Walker's stay of execution is being appealed, and George Banks' execution has been halted so that his competence can be assessed.

The three cases are instructive. Bowling's IQ has been assessed at somewhere between 74 and 87, meaning I've eaten salads that were smarter than this guy; part of his case hinges on a numerical cutoff for execution eligibility, since KY law bans exections of persons with IQs of or below 70. This is patently ridiculous, since neither the concept of IQ nor the methods of assessing same allow for the kind of accuracy needed to impose such a cutoff. Bowling's (profound lack of) intelligence is at issue not only because it is generally accepted that it is wrong to execute a person incapable of understanding their crime or its consequences, but because it has direct bearing on his case: there is reason to suspect that he may have been framed, and he would certainly be a prime target for such a setup. In addition to the case to decide whether Bowling is legally retarded (enough to avoid execution), there is the question of method. KY, like 36 other states, kills by lethal injection, and along with 28 of those states it uses Pavulon (pancuronium bromide), a paralytic, in combination with -- in KY's case -- sodium pentothal (anaesthetic) and potassium chloride (which causes a massive heart attack). The second of the pending cases for which Bowling's execution has been postponed concerns the constitutionality of this method: Pavulon does not affect awareness or pain, for which reason it has been banned in animal euthanasia. There is reason to believe that a person executed by this method could suffer terrible pain but be unable to convey their status to medical staff.

Banks' guilt is not at issue and no one is suggesting that he should be set free, but his history of mental illness was not properly taken into account by the original jury, because of faulty instructions that have since been found to be unconstitutional.

Walker, in contrast, was found guilty of murder in the absence of a body or any physical evidence of a crime. The conviction was based solely on the testimony of co-defendants, all of whom plead guilty to 2nd degree or accessory charges and are now free or eligible for parole. The case is further complicated by Walker's mental illness, which was not adequately presented to the jury; nor were the jury given the option of life without parole, which would now be available in a similar case. Walker refused the 2nd degree plea offered him, and his counsel argue that his mental illness was a primary factor in this decision. More background on Walker here (including a letter you can send to the Governor of North Carolina) from the National Coalition for the Abolition of the Death Penalty.

These three cases illustrate just some of the reasons why the death penalty is barbaric and unsupportable. There are plenty such, including: execution of juveniles and the mentally ill or otherwise incompetent; significant racial and socioeconomic bias in the application of the death penalty; prosecutorial discretion and variable state laws and standards resulting in wide geographic disparities in capital cases; life without parole being vastly cheaper for the state than the death penalty; strong evidence that the death penalty is no deterrent against serious crime; and the undisputed fact that innocent people have been executed and will continue to be executed so long as the death penalty remains a legal option.

A few facts and figures from NCADP, ACLU, HRW, DPIC and AIUSA: There are eight other pending executions in the US right now, with deadlines extending to December next year, and more than 3500 people on death row. Since the reinstatement of capital punishment by the US Supreme Court in 1976, the US has executed 944 individuals. Only 12 States and the District of Columbia do not have death penalty statutes. The UN has resolved that execution of those 18 or younger at the time of the crime is "contrary to customary international law", but at least 20 US states still have laws allowing for the execution of offenders as young as 16. In the past five years, the US has executed 13 juvenile offenders, while the rest of the world has recorded five such killings. Only the US and Somalia have yet to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and in addition to the US only China, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Iran and Pakistan have openly executed juveniles since 2000. Although execution of persons with "substantial intellectual impairment" is now illegal in the US, some 40 retarded people were executed between 1977 and 2002. Despite international law prohibiting execution of the mentally ill, virtually universal adoption of corresponding national laws and strong agreement between these bodies of law and the US Constitution, the US continues to execute the insane, most recently Larry Robison (schizophrenia, 2000), Thomas Provenzano (delusional, 2000) and John Satterwhite (retarded and mentally ill, 2000). Although non-whites make up around a quarter of the US population, they constitute 55% of death row and represent 43% of those executed since 1976. Although whites account for 50% of murder victims, in 80% of capital cases the victim was white. More than 60% of juvenile offender death sentences since 1976 have been passed on Blacks or Latinos. Of all death row inmates, 95% cannot afford an attorney and must rely on underfunded state programs, most of which do not have meaningful competency standards. There is enormous geographic disparity and apparent arbitrariness in the death penalty: state and federal jurisdictions vary in the crimes for which the death penalty can be sought and the likelihood that prosecutors will in fact seek it, so that location is a primary determinant of an offender's chances of facing death and the same crime is likely to receive different punishment in different courts; only about 1% of convicted murderers are executed. The death penalty is expensive, costing between $1 and $7 million per case as opposed to around $500-600,000 per case for life without parole. The death penalty is not an effective deterrent. Canada's murder rate has dropped 40% since abolition of the death penalty in 1975, whereas the US rate was 6.2/100,000 in 1967, 10.2/100,000 in 1980 and 5.6/100,000 in 2003. The five non-death penalty countries with the highest murder rates average 21.6 murders per 100,000 people, whereas the five death penalty countries with the highest rates average 41.6/100,000. From 1980 to 2000, the homicide rate in states with the death penalty was 48-101% higher than in states without the death penalty, and 10 of the 12 states without capital punishment have homicide rates below the national average.

Finally, and to me most compellingly, the death penalty takes innocent lives. Since 1973, 117 death row inmates have been exonerated, a rate of around one exoneration for every eight executions. A description of each case can be read here; unless I made an error, these inmates spent an average of 8.9 years in prison before being exonerated. This astonishing error rate alone should be enough to take death penalty statutes off the books.

In lieu of having anything worthwhile to say, here are the HIV links I've collected since I started using del.icio.us:

BBC NEWS | Programmes | This World | New York's HIV experiment

2004-11-30 19:52

holy shit

French vaccine fuels hope in AIDS treatment

2004-11-30 06:38

extract uninfected dendritic cells and virus, mix cells and heat-killed virus, reinject into patient

New HIV co-factor found

2004-11-17 07:01

annexin2 and a host-derived factor important in membrane fusion

Science Blog - Scientists discover enzyme crucial to HIV replication

2004-11-02 06:39

Jeang has a point: a cellular enzyme can't mutate

BBC NEWS Aids warning over bushmeat trade

2004-10-28 15:50

possibility of new human retroviruses arising the same way HIV did

Entrez PubMed: Wofe, SIV infections in hunters

2004-10-28 15:49

relates to BBC bushmeat story

The Lancet : Simian retroviral infections in human beings

2004-10-28 15:48

comment on Wolfe paper; submit to PLoSB as unsolved mystery?

Potential For Developing A New Cream Or Gel To Block AIDS Transmission During Heterosexual Sex

2004-10-21 17:56

this would save millions of African lives, just for starters, and put real power to fight HIV into the hands of women who currently have little or no defense

BBC NEWS | Health | HIV in monkeys 'blocked by drug'

2004-10-18 07:42

Update 041201: Gov Perry has granted a stay of execution. He had this to say:

After a lengthy review of the trial transcript, appellate court rulings and clemency proceedings, I see no evidence of innocence.

Y'know, I thought there was supposed to be a presumption of innocence, with the burden of proof being on the prosecution.

-------------------original post:

Frances Newton is scheduled to be killed today by the State of Texas. After 17 years and despite incompetent state-appointed counsel at her original trial, questionable forensics, new testing methods which could shed light on key evidence and expanded evidence from a key witness, the state looks set to deny her request for a 120-day delay of execution. Atrios and Norbizness have details and Amnesty International has a one-click message you can send to the Governor and the Presiding Officer of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Below is the letter I sent. (I stole the image from here.)

Dear Gov Perry/ PO Owens:

I am writing you to ask you to do everything in your power to commute the sentence of Frances Newton, prisoner number 922, and honor the 120-day minimum reprieve petition which would allow Ms. Newton’s claims to be properly investigated.

What is 120 days to Texas? To Frances Newton, it's life or death. A key witness' testimony has been expanded in support of her innocence, the prosecution is relying on the work of a crime lab which has failed at least one quality assurance audit (1), new testing methods exist which could shed light on key evidence regarding possible gunpowder residue (2) and there have been serious questions raised about the quality of cousel provided (2). In light of these issues, it is unthinkable that Texas should execute Ms Newton without allowing her an adequate opportunity to defend herself.

Ms Newton stands convicted of the 1987 murder of her husband and two children. The key witness at Ms. Newton’s trial, Sondra Nelms, has signed an affidavit expanding on her trial testimony to the effect that Ms Newton's distresss upon finding the bodies of her family convinced Ms Nelms that "there is absolutely no way she had any involvement in their deaths.”

Furthermore, there are serious concerns regarding the forensic evidence presented at the trial. The ballistics evidence that was found at the crime scene was analyzed by the Houston Police Department’s Harris County crime lab, a March 2003 audit of which exposed serious mistakes in the lab’s analysis and interpretation of DNA evidence, poor staff training, inadequate facilities and outdated scientific techniques. Ms Newton's attorneys have recently questioned the ballistics tests on the suspected murder weapon. Moreover, forensic experts stated at the trial that the nitrites found on Ms Newton’s skirt and which were initially suspected of coming from a gun could have come from fertilizer. On the day of the murder, Ms Newton had stayed with her uncle, whose large garden might well explain the nitrites found on her skirt. After all, court records show that tests conducted on Ms Newton's hands on that same night found no evidence that she had fired a gun. The 120-day reprieve could be used to conduct further forensic tests using new methods which can distinguish between gunpowder and fertilizer.

Finally, Ms Newton was represented throughout her trial by state-appointed attorney Ron Mock, who has been barred from accepting court-appointed capital cases since passage of the Fair Defense Act in 2001. His co-counsel has signed an affidavit stating that she and Mock provided ineffective legal assistance to Ms Newton.

Ms. Newton’s execution is scheduled for December 1, 2004. Please live up to the standards of your office: show a decent respect for human life, and for justice: grant clemency to Frances Elaine Newton and honor the 120-day reprieve of execution to allow for a proper investigation of her claim of innocence.

Sincerely, etc.

links:
1. New York Times
2. Houston Chronicle

P.S. signing up for action alerts from Amnesty might allow me to take more timely action in future. Please consider doing this also.