Income and Health

Check out this talk by Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen.

Try the software here

more.....

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Housing Graphs

A few charts pointed to by Paul Krugman

Housing Charts: Genesis of a Crisis

Price to Rent ratio

Homeowners With Negative Equity

Equity distribution among homeowners


Historic Housing Prices





Price to cost

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The Ethyl-Poisoned Earth

At the turn of the twentieth century, as the age of automobiles was afoot, the newfangled gasoline-powered internal combustion engine began to reach the limitations of the fuel that fed it. As higher-compression designs were tried, an engine-wrecking condition known as "knock" or "ping" would invariably develop. Though they didn't know it at the time, the noisy destruction was caused when the the increased heat and pressure prompted the air/fuel mixture in the cylinder to detonate all at once as opposed to an orderly burn. In spite of this problem, there was a demand for high-compression designs since they provided increased horsepower and fuel efficiency. The latter was particularly appealing in light of America's forecasted fuel famine.

From Damm Interesting
more.....

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Plan for getting elected

Basic Principles

• Our common bond is the rule of law
  
• Governance is by the people and for the people and the earth
• Trust is the scaffold of peaceful existence.
  
• Lead the way towards meaningful progress
  
• Measure results with science and diligence
  

Legitimate Role of Government

• Protect basic human and environmental rights
• Promote the common good
• Provide common trust
• Provide for health and income security
  

Non-Legitimate Role of Government

• Aggression and repression
  
• Promotion of fear
• Commerce
  
• Theft of public and private funds
  

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Where to buy LED lamps

Heat sinked 15W EnLux
4 W Lemnis
The LED light

. And here is the rest of it.

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Compact Florescent and LED lamps

LED bulbs may be finally here. Check out the pharox LED bulb, or buy it here
The table below compares the LED bulb to 40W, CFLs and incandescent bulbs plus 75 W CFL bulbs data.

cost	watts	Lux	Lumens	lifetime (hrs)	Hg (mg)	Time on/day (hrs)	cost	hrs/yr	kwh/yr	$/KWh	Energy $/year	Bulb $/year	Total $/year	1year$	10 yrar $	carbon /year (Kg)	mercury /year (mg)
led	4		230	50,000	0	10	$59.00	3,650	15	$0.12	$1.75	$4.31	$6.06	$60.75	$76.52	6.7	0.3
cfl	9		230	6,000	5	10	$3.00	3,650	33	$0.12	$3.94	$1.83	$5.77	$6.94	$42.42	15.1	3.8
incadescent	75	975	230	1,000	0	10	$1.10	3,650	274	$0.12	$32.85	$4.02	$36.87	$33.95	$329.60	125.6	6.4
N:vision	19	925	1,200	6,000	5	10	$5.97	3,650	71	$0.12	$8.50	$3.63	$12.13	$14.47	$90.94	32.5	4.7
westinghouse	18	840	1,200	6,000	5	10	$6.00	3,650	64	$0.12	$7.67	$3.65	$11.32	$13.67	$82.65	29.3	4.5
Phillips Marathom	21	865	1,200	6,000	5	10	$3.00	3,650	76	$0.12	$9.11	$1.83	$10.94	$12.11	$94.10	34.8	4.8
max lite	20	900	1,200	6,000	5	10	$4.50	3,650	74	$0.12	$8.89	$2.74	$11.63	$13.39	$93.41	34.0	4.8
sylvania	19	822	1,200	6,000	5	10	$5.75	3,650	69	$0.12	$8.28	$3.50	$11.78	$14.03	$88.53	31.7	4.7
westinghouse doft	18	830	1,200	6,000	5	10	$6.00	3,650	65	$0.12	$7.80	$3.65	$11.45	$13.80	$83.96	29.8	4.6
GE	20	843	1,200	6,000	5	10	$5.00	3,650	72	$0.12	$8.67	$3.04	$11.71	$13.67	$91.72	33.2	4.7

And some good info on mercury in CFL

How much mercury is contained in a CFL?
Each bulb contains an average of 5 milligrams of mercury, “which is just enough to cover a ballpoint pen tip,” says Leslie, associate director of the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer. “Though it’s nothing to laugh at, unless you wipe up mercury [without gloves] and then lick your hand, you’re probably going to be okay.”

Approximately 0.0234 mg of mercury—plus carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide—releases into the air per 1 kwh of electricity that a coal-fired power plant generates. Over the 7500-hour average range of one CFL, then, a plant will emit 13.16 mg of mercury to sustain a 75-watt incandescent bulb but only 3.51 mg of mercury to sustain a 20-watt CFL (the lightning equivalent of a 75-watt traditional bulb). Even if the mercury contained in a CFL was directly released into the atmosphere, an incandescent would still contribute 4.65 more milligrams of mercury into the environment over its lifetime.

And some info on lux and Lumens

The lux (symbol: lx) is the SI derived unit of illuminance or
illumination. It is equal to one lumen per square metre.
• sunlight on an average day ranges from 32 000 to 100 000 lux
• TV studios are lit at about 1 000 lux [i.e. 1000 lumens
per square metre]
• a bright office has about 400 lux of illumination
• At sunset and sunrise, ambient outdoor light is also about
400 lux (if the sky is clear).
• moonlight represents about 1 lux
• starlight measures a mere 0.00005 lux

And here is the rest of it.

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sets

Math links on set theory, etc

• Topoi by Goldblatt
• Topos by John Baez
• Everything -

And here is the rest of it.

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A Geometric TOE

I've become intrigued with learning a bit about mathematical structures which are used in physics, and I've stumbled across Garret Lisi's map of spacetime, gravity, physical forces and particles onto the E8 simple exceptional group. Titled "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything" (the title is a bit of a play on E8). Here are a few links to study

An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything
E8 mapping project
Garrett's Blog
John Baez on E8 etc
E8 applet
Tony Smith on Lie Algebra
E8 from aimath
wikipedia


And here is the rest of it.

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Obediantarians

How do we control society? How do we control our own lives? This question gets little thought these days, but in times past it was a question under active discussion. How we answer this is fundamental to our existence. How we go about making individual and collective decisions defines our culture and our form of government. Let's look at a few example of what motivates us and how we control our acts. Physical motivations include discomfort, hunger, fear, pain, sex and boredom. As we look beyond our physical we find the motivations which enable us to work now for future rewards. At a slightly more abstract level our emotions including jealousy, hate , dominance and submissiveness, love are powerful motivators. Interestingly the actions driven by our emotions tend to be societal in nature. We might say that our emotions help us to survive in the family and large kin group. Even more abstract are activities like planning and engineering to create value or a profit. Beyond these we find motivations for learning, adventure, music and art. The physical and societal motivation for these activities is minimal. They seem to be driven by a creative individual impulse to progress.

Regardless of motivation, our acts are controlled by our free will which is unconstrained. It's a wildcard which can lead to arbitrary acts. As such it is unpredictable and dangerous. More predictable is authoritarianism and enforced or voluntary obedience. I will call such voluntary obedience 'obedientariasm'

These motives may produce unacceptable behavior. How as a society do we control it? We use religious custom, culture, rule of law, respect and revenge to control behavior. We seem to have two basic paths; One path is 'self directed' and runs on trust, respect and informed voluntary acceptance of the rule of law. The other path can be called obedience to authority.

This gets me to the point of this post, we can either let people decide for themselves what to do or we can tell them what to do. Society benefits from an informed self directed populace, but it is uncontrolled. Many of us are not comfortable with making our own decisions. This is generally because we fear taking control. Those of us in this category, wish to be told what to do and wish to do what we are told. I will call these people 'obedientarians'.

It is also natural for us to be self directed, and to enforce our will on others. The dynamics of this natural system creates 'authorities' and concentrates power in their hands. Authoritarianism has a natural alliance in the obedientarians. With enough power, these two groups can force obedience on the self-directed.

In fact this division is an epic battle that has been fought for ages. The small but accumulated victories for the self-directed can be called the arrow of progress and has directly led to the age of enlightenment, tolerance, the rule of law and modern protections for basic freedoms and social security.

If this ancient struggle is obscured in modern life, it is because those who have fought and won are now dead. It is on us to advance or to be led.

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Shut up and calculate

From Max Tegmark's new paper on the Theory of Everything
Dept. of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139

I advocate an extreme “shut-up-and-calculate” approach to physics, where our external physical reality is assumed to be purely mathematical.

...

Mathematics has played a striking role in these suc-
cesses. The idea that our universe is in some sense math-
ematical goes back at least to the Pythagoreans of an-
cient Greece, and has spawned centuries of discussion
among physicists and philosophers. In the 17th century,
Galileo famously stated that the universe is a “grand
book” written in the language of mathematics. More
recently, the physics Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner ar-
gued in the 1960s that “the unreasonable effectiveness of
mathematics in the natural sciences” demanded an ex-
planation.
Here, I will push this idea to its extreme and argue that
our universe is not just described by mathematics — it is
mathematics. While this hypothesis might sound rather
abstract and far-fetched, it makes startling predictions
about the structure of the universe that could be testable
by observations.

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democratic-principles

Democratic Principles

Democratic Principles

Free America blog

1. Respect for the right to practice the religion of one's choosing, or none. 2. Respect for the Constitutional principle of seperation of Church and State, which honors all religions by singling out none for special treatment. 3. Respect for the Constitutional guarantees of legal due process, including unobstructed access to the court system. 4. Respect for the Constitutional guarantee that the citizens of the United States should be free from unwarranted searches and siezures without probable cause, whether a search is of a citizen's person or property. It should be understood that no search so denied to government agents shall be allowed by agents of any other entities, including corporations. 5. All laws should apply to all citizens of the United States equally, including the authors of the laws. 6. In the interest of the common good of the citizenry of the United States it is recognized that health care for all citizens is a reasonable, desirable and reachable goal. 7. All health care decisions should be made between health care professionals and patients -- not insurance companies, HMOs, or politicians. 8. No corporation should be treated in law as a citizen of the United States, or granted any privilege or benefit, whether financial or other, that is not availible to all corporations and citizens of the US. 9. The chemical composition and DNA encoding of all citizens is the personal property of those citizens and subject to Constitutional property protections. 10. The Social Security System should be maintained as established and contracted with the American public. The SS fund should be untouchable for any use other than that for which it was intended. 11. The principle of intelligent, informed self-defense is paramount to the security of the United States, but not as an excuse for Imperialist military expansion and war profiteering. International cooperation is recognized to be of utmost importance when engaging a confirmed international menace, because it is unreasonable to expect the citizens of the US to bear the entire expense in life and lucre of being the world's policeman.

From http://home.earthlink.net/~makenoise/id3.html

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Progressive Principles

FIRST, Liberty is the necessary state of humanity, and liberty only exists in governments where the rights of all minorities are protected and preserved.

SECOND, a free, fair, unbiased, co-equal, and ethical judiciary is necessary for the working of liberty. Without justice, there is no freedom.

THIRD, the Constitution limits the powers of the government, not the rights of the people. Government can do nothing without the express consent of the Constitution, which is the voice of the people.

FOURTH, the people are the country, not the government.

FIFTH, Foreign Relations are for the benefit, protection, and security of the American people. The citizenry of the United States are compassionate, just, and freedom loving people. These principles should be mirrored in our foreign policy.

SIXTH, We must return to the long American tradition of developing and honoring International Law.

SEVENTH, Personal Responsibility is one of the most cherished and central American value, which must be reflected in our Government, taught in our schools through civics and sex education classes, preserved in a woman's right to choose, and in living wills. Personal Responsibility should govern what people watch, read, and listen to, not the congress.

EIGHTH, the power of the Government to take life should be limited and exceedingly rare. The shadows of the Armenian, Jewish, Rwandan, and Sudanese Genocides being so fresh in our minds, no government should have the power to imprison and kill people. Preemptive war is a license to empire, and should be abandoned.

NINTH, we are an industrious people, who should be unionized, paid a living wage, aided in entrepreneurial enterprise, and not handicapped by so-called "Free Trade" agreements.

We enact these principles by:

THIRD, Voting Rights Amendment to the Constitution.

http://projectshadow.com/sophia/liberal/philosophy/05-03-25_principles.htm

or

A Declaration of Progressive Principles
Drafted online by the members of The Principles Project and adopted March 1, 2005

We believe in America's historic promise of liberty, justice and the expansion of opportunity for all people. These commitments to fundamental human dignity and a better nation for all animate the American spirit and give us a sense of common purpose. We honor these commitments by recognizing that with the great freedoms afforded us comes an even greater responsibility to see that those freedoms are extended to all people in all places.

We believe that this sense of shared responsibility -- for our families, our communities, our nation and our world -- strengthens our country and secures our future.

_______

We believe in defending dignity:

“All people are created equal�? is not just a fact -- it is a call to action. Either we create justice for all or we have justice for none.

All people have the right to lead their personal lives in accordance with their own beliefs, free from imposition or monitoring by others.

All people have a right to the basic necessities required to lead dignified lives and to pursue happiness.

We believe in strengthening democracy:

It is the shared responsibility of a nation to ensure each citizen’s freedom, security and equality. Through government, we honor our responsibility to promote the common good.

Government must be transparent, accessible and open to all citizens who wish to oversee its workings and share in its benefits.

America must work to enhance the democratic process by ensuring an educated citizenry, equal opportunity for influence, honest public debate, competitive elections and robust civic participation.

A healthy democracy requires tireless vigilance against corruption and abuses of power, and a government that is accountable to its people.

We believe in promoting progress:

We must promote innovation and entrepreneurship, cultivate the arts and sciences, and ensure a quality education for everyone. When we invest in individual potential, the benefits are shared by all.

America must continue to be a welcoming home to all people. We believe that diversity of faith, culture and perspective enriches our nation.

America must keep a watchful eye on the economy to ensure fairness, transparency and genuine opportunity for all.

Each generation has a duty to protect and improve those resources we hold in common -- our community spaces, our public institutions and our natural environment.

We believe in embracing leadership:

America’s security requires an effective military and a commitment to enduring alliances, but we must remember that America’s true power is found in its wisdom as well as its strength.

Our security and prosperity rely on the security and prosperity of people throughout the world. By helping others, we will help ourselves.

America must join with other nations to build global institutions that protect the vulnerable, promote democratic self-government, and improve the health and welfare of all people throughout the world.

America must never suspend its belief in democracy and human rights in the pursuit of its global objectives. Noble ends require nothing short of noble means.

_______

As progressives, these are our guiding principles -- to defend dignity, to strengthen democracy, to promote progress and to embrace leadership. We believe that our country must always be looking toward a better and brighter future for all people, and in this pursuit we pledge to come forward and work with whomever we can. We will fight for these principles in every community, every forum and every office of government, because the struggles of this new century will not only be about preserving the freedoms we already enjoy -- they will be about expanding those freedoms for all people.

from the principle projest

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GOP principles

Republican Principles

I'm a Republican Because...

I BELIEVE the strength of our nation lies with the individual and that each person’s dignity, freedom, ability and responsibility must be honored.

I BELIEVE in equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, creed, sex, age or disability.

I BELIEVE free enterprise and encouraging individual initiative have brought this nation opportunity, economic growth and prosperity.

I BELIEVE government must practice fiscal responsibility and allow individuals to keep more of the money they earn.

I BELIEVE the proper role of government is to provide for the people only those critical functions that cannot be performed by individuals or private organizations, and that the best government is that which governs least.

I BELIEVE the most effective, responsible and responsive government is government closest to the people.

I BELIEVE Americans must retain the principles that have made us strong while developing new and innovative ideas to meet the challenges of changing times.

I BELIEVE Americans value and should preserve our national strength and pride while working to extend peace, freedom and human rights throughout the world.

FINALLY, I believe the Republican Party is the best vehicle for translating these ideals into positive and successful principles of government.

From GOP.com

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Native American Code of Ethics

Native American Code of Ethics

1. Rise with the sun to pray. Pray alone. Pray often. The Great Spirit will listen, if you only speak.

2. Be tolerant of those who are lost on their path. Ignorance, conceit, anger, jealousy and greed stem from a lost soul. Pray that they will find guidance.

3. Search for yourself, by yourself. Do not allow others to make your path for you. It is your road, and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.

4. Treat the guests in your home with much consideration. Serve them the best food, give them the best bed and treat them with respect and honor.

5. Do not take what is not yours whether from a person, a community, the wilderness or from a culture. It was not earned nor given. It is not yours.

6. Respect all things that are placed upon this earth - whether it be people or plant.

7. Honor other people's thoughts, wishes and words. Never interrupt another or mock or rudely mimic them. Allow each person the right to personal expression.

8. Never speak of others in a bad way. The negative energy that you put out into the universe will multiply when it returns to you.

9. All persons make mistakes. And all mistakes can be forgiven.

10. Bad thoughts cause illness of the mind, body and spirit. Practice optimism.

11. Nature is not FOR us, it is a PART of us. They are part of your worldly family.

12. Children are the seeds of our future. Plant love in their hearts and water them with wisdom and life's lessons. When they are grown, give them space to grow.

13. Avoid hurting the hearts of others. The poison of your pain will return to you.

14. Be truthful at all times. Honesty is the test of ones will within this universe.

15. Keep yourself balanced. Your Mental self, Spiritual self, Emotional self, and Physical self - all need to be strong, pure and healthy. Work out the body to strengthen the mind. Grow rich in spirit to cure emotional ails.

16. Make conscious decisions as to who you will be and how you will react. Be responsible for your own actions.

17. Respect the privacy and personal space of others. Do not touch the personal property of others - especially sacred and religious objects. This is forbidden.

18. Be true to yourself first. You cannot nurture and help others if you cannot nurture and help yourself first.

19. Respect others religious beliefs. Do not force your belief on others.

20. Share your good fortune with others. Participate in charity.

This originally appeared in the "Inter-Tribal Times," October, 1994

InspirationNative Village Home Page

I don't know the history of the above but it's a nice set of principles.

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Physics of Will

Let me start with a question that has been asked before: What is the most powerful weapon? Here are a few choices to get us started -

• Nuclear Bombs
  
• A well trained Army
  
• An educated Population
  
• An determined leader
  
• A occupied populace with guns
  
• 'Precision Technology
  
• Oil
  
• Computer Networking
  
• Critical Thinking
  
• A hit tale, song, tv show or book
• A new invention
  
• An idea whose time has come
  
• Non violent protest
  
• Peace Love and Understanding
  
• Paper-Scissors-Rock
  

It's not possible to pick a single answer from the above choices, but each of them can best the other under the right conditions. These 'weapons' couple ideas with action to coerce reality towards a state which will never occur in natural world.

Science can predict what is possible in natural processes. These systems are driven by energy flow, and constrained by the physics of our universe. In an important sense, physics does not so much tell us what is possible, but what is impossible. Any configuration of matter in space and time is possible provided that the configuration is not prevented by physics. However not all possibilities are likely to be a instantiated in an evolving universe. For a configuration of the universe to exist it must also conserve energy and matter and it must also be possible to evolve to the new configuration from our current state.

In the 'natural' world, the range of possible future worlds is driven by energy flow. The sun forms from dust, the moon rotates, the tides follow, storms dissipate energy, rocks weather away. Life provides a new vector for energy flow redirecting energy into chemical pathways provided by metabolism. Life's impact in this sense, is limited to what happens as species evolve to exploit natural niches. The future will be an optimized version of the present withing the natural constrains of energy flow.

Will however is a different concept. Our will directs us to construct wholly unnatural worlds. Not evolved, but directed. Will fundamentally changes the equation of what is possible in our space.

Will however takes it's own path according to the opportunities available to it. Memes travel in a space, the space of free will. It is a open question what that space is constrained by. What are the physics of free will?


Will to alter our reality is not the end of this train of thought. We are not limited to constructing spaces which are physically possible to build. We can leap to the possible spaces which are not limited by physics of space, or by the mathematics of numbers. Such a world allows us for instance to travel at warp speed to save an angry race of aliens from an exploding star.

But what of the space limited solely by mathematics, and logic? It must conform to the combinatorial principals embodied in mathematics. Our physical reality is a subset of the possible set of mathematical equations, but not the only one. Our mental and computational spaces are also subsets of mathematical systems. For a fun look at this, check out Max Tegmark's TOE.

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What I've learned

So maybe I've learned a few things in my life -

• Your word is the most important possession you have. Don't bullshit, be as accurate as you can, if you don't know - say so, disclose bad news as soon as you know, be skeptical, be honest. Work hard to improve your accuracy.
  
• Treat 'everyone' you encounter with respect at all times. Just do it and you won't have to think about how to treat people. The cast majority of folks are well intentioned, but not always strong or intelligent enough to not disappoint.
  
• Forgive. The past is not ours, it is our ancestors. They were not always right. We are not always right. Forgiveness and respect are the only way to break the cycle of historical violence and revenge.
• Be non violent. It's never going to work any other way. We are all in this planet together. You are going to have to get along, and any violence creates long term negative violence.
  
• Have a genuine interest in others. You will be surprised to lean that the more you know about them, the more you want to know.
• Belief is not the same thing as fact. It is dangerous. Neither are anecdotes or stories.
  
• Many things are unknowable. Some things are. You need to know the difference.
  
• The full past and the future are fundamentally unknowable. The present is hidden unless we look. Look.
• 
  

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'A Coup Has Occurred'

I think nothing has higher priority than averting an attack on Iran, which I think will be accompanied by a further change in our way of governing here that in effect will convert us into what I would call a police state.


By Daniel Ellsberg

09/26/07 "ICH" -- -- September 26, 2007 (Text of a speech delivered September 20, 2007) -- - - I think nothing has higher priority than averting an attack on Iran, which I think will be accompanied by a further change in our way of governing here that in effect will convert us into what I would call a police state.

If there’s another 9/11 under this regime … it means that they switch on full extent all the apparatus of a police state that has been patiently constructed, largely secretly at first but eventually leaked out and known and accepted by the Democratic people in Congress, by the Republicans and so forth.

Will there be anything left for NSA to increase its surveillance of us? … They may be to the limit of their technical capability now, or they may not. But if they’re not now they will be after another 9/11.

And I would say after the Iranian retaliation to an American attack on Iran, you will then see an increased attack on Iran – an escalation – which will be also accompanied by a total suppression of dissent in this country, including detention camps.

It’s a little hard for me to distinguish the two contingencies; they could come together. Another 9/11 or an Iranian attack in which Iran’s reaction against Israel, against our shipping, against our troops in Iraq above all, possibly in this country, will justify the full panoply of measures that have been prepared now, legitimized, and to some extent written into law. …

This is an unusual gang, even for Republicans. [But] I think that the successors to this regime are not likely to roll back the assault on the Constitution. They will take advantage of it, they will exploit it.

Will Hillary Clinton as president decide to turn off NSA after the last five years of illegal surveillance? Will she deprive her administration her ability to protect United States citizens from possible terrorism by blinding herself and deafening herself to all that NSA can provide? I don’t think so.

Unless this somehow, by a change in our political climate, of a radical change, unless this gets rolled back in the next year or two before a new administration comes in – and there’s no move to do this at this point – unless that happens I don’t see it happening under the next administration, whether Republican or Democratic.

The Next Coup

Let me simplify this and not just to be rhetorical: A coup has occurred. I woke up the other day realizing, coming out of sleep, that a coup has occurred. It’s not just a question that a coup lies ahead with the next 9/11. That’s the next coup, that completes the first.

The last five years have seen a steady assault on every fundamental of our Constitution, … what the rest of the world looked at for the last 200 years as a model and experiment to the rest of the world – in checks and balances, limited government, Bill of Rights, individual rights protected from majority infringement by the Congress, an independent judiciary, the possibility of impeachment.

There have been violations of these principles by many presidents before. Most of the specific things that Bush has done in the way of illegal surveillance and other matters were done under my boss Lyndon Johnson in the Vietnam War: the use of CIA, FBI, NSA against Americans.

I could go through a list going back before this century to Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus in the Civil War, and before that the Alien and Sedition Acts in the 18th century. I think that none of those presidents were in fact what I would call quite precisely the current administration: domestic enemies of the Constitution.

I think that none of these presidents with all their violations, which were impeachable had they been found out at the time and in nearly every case their violations were not found out until they were out of office so we didn’t have the exact challenge that we have today.

That was true with the first term of Nixon and certainly of Johnson, Kennedy and others. They were impeachable, they weren’t found out in time, but I think it was not their intention to in the crisis situations that they felt justified their actions, to change our form of government.

It is increasingly clear with each new book and each new leak that comes out, that Richard Cheney and his now chief of staff David Addington have had precisely that in mind since at least the early 70s. Not just since 1992, not since 2001, but have believed in Executive government, single-branch government under an Executive president – elected or not – with unrestrained powers. They did not believe in restraint.

When I say this I’m not saying they are traitors. I don’t think they have in mind allegiance to some foreign power or have a desire to help a foreign power. I believe they have in their own minds a love of this country and what they think is best for this country – but what they think is best is directly and consciously at odds with what the Founders of this country and Constitution thought.

They believe we need a different kind of government now, an Executive government essentially, rule by decree, which is what we’re getting with signing statements. Signing statements are talked about as line-item vetoes which is one [way] of describing them which are unconstitutional in themselves, but in other ways are just saying the president says “I decide what I enforce. I decide what the law is. I legislate.”

It’s [the same] with the military commissions, courts that are under the entire control of the Executive Branch, essentially of the president. A concentration of legislative, judicial, and executive powers in one branch, which is precisely what the Founders meant to avert, and tried to avert and did avert to the best of their ability in the Constitution.

Founders Had It Right

Now I’m appealing to that as a crisis right now not just because it is a break in tradition but because I believe in my heart and from my experience that on this point the Founders had it right.

It’s not just “our way of doing things” – it was a crucial perception on the corruption of power to anybody including Americans. On procedures and institutions that might possibly keep that power under control because the alternative was what we have just seen, wars like Vietnam, wars like Iraq, wars like the one coming.

That brings me to the second point. This Executive Branch, under specifically Bush and Cheney, despite opposition from most of the rest of the branch, even of the cabinet, clearly intends a war against Iran which even by imperialist standards, standards in other words which were accepted not only by nearly everyone in the Executive Branch but most of the leaders in Congress. The interests of the empire, the need for hegemony, our right to control and our need to control the oil of the Middle East and many other places. That is consensual in our establishment. …

But even by those standards, an attack on Iran is insane. And I say that quietly, I don’t mean it to be heard as rhetoric. Of course it’s not only aggression and a violation of international law, a supreme international crime, but it is by imperial standards, insane in terms of the consequences.

Does that make it impossible? No, it obviously doesn’t, it doesn’t even make it unlikely.

That is because two things come together that with the acceptance for various reasons of the Congress – Democrats and Republicans – and the public and the media, we have freed the White House – the president and the vice president – from virtually any restraint by Congress, courts, media, public, whatever.

And on the other hand, the people who have this unrestrained power are crazy. Not entirely, but they have crazy beliefs.

And the question is what then, what can we do about this? We are heading towards an insane operation. It is not certain. It is likely. … I want to try to be realistic myself here, to encourage us to do what we must do, what is needed to be done with the full recognition of the reality. Nothing is impossible.

What I’m talking about in the way of a police state, in the way of an attack on Iran is not certain. Nothing is certain, actually. However, I think it is probable, more likely than not, that in the next 15, 16 months of this administration we will see an attack on Iran. Probably. Whatever we do.

And … we will not succeed in moving Congress probably, and Congress probably will not stop the president from doing this. And that’s where we’re heading. That’s a very ugly, ugly prospect.

However, I think it’s up to us to work to increase that small perhaps – anyway not large – possibility and probability to avert this within the next 15 months, aside from the effort that we have to make for the rest of our lives.

Restoring the Republic

Getting back the constitutional government and improving it will take a long time. And I think if we don’t get started now, it won’t be started under the next administration.

Getting out of Iraq will take a long time. Averting Iran and averting a further coup in the face of a 9/11, another attack, is for right now, it can’t be put off. It will take a kind of political and moral courage of which we have seen very little…

We have a really unusual concentration here and in this audience, of people who have in fact changed their lives, changed their position, lost their friends to a large extent, risked and experienced being called terrible names, “traitor,” “weak on terrorism” – names that politicians will do anything to avoid being called.

How do we get more people in the government and in the public at large to change their lives now in a crisis in a critical way? How do we get Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid for example? What kinds of pressures, what kinds of influences can be brought to bear to get Congress to do their jobs? It isn’t just doing their jobs. Getting them to obey their oaths of office.

I took an oath many times, an oath of office as a Marine lieutenant, as an official in the Defense Department, as an official in the State Department as a Foreign Service officer. A number of times I took an oath of office which is the same oath office taken by every member of Congress and every official in the United States and every officer in the United States armed services.

And that oath is not to a Commander in Chief, which is not mentioned. It is not to a fuehrer. It is not even to superior officers. The oath is precisely to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States.

Now that is an oath I violated every day for years in the Defense Department without realizing it when I kept my mouth shut when I knew the public was being lied into a war as they were lied into Iraq, as they are being lied into war in Iran.

I knew that I had the documents that proved it, and I did not put it out then. I was not obeying my oath which I eventually came to do.

I’ve often said that Lt. Ehren Watada – who still faces trial for refusing to obey orders to deploy to Iraq which he correctly perceives to be an unconstitutional and aggressive war – is the single officer in the United States armed services who is taking seriously in upholding his oath.

The president is clearly violating that oath, of course. Everybody under him who understands what is going on and there are myriad, are violating their oaths. And that’s the standard that I think we should be asking of people.

Congressional Courage

On the Democratic side, on the political side, I think we should be demanding of our Democratic leaders in the House and Senate – and frankly of the Republicans – that it is not their highest single absolute priority to be reelected or to maintain a Democratic majority so that Pelosi can still be Speaker of the House and Reid can be in the Senate, or to increase that majority.

I’m not going to say that for politicians they should ignore that, or that they should do something else entirely, or that they should not worry about that.

Of course that will be and should be a major concern of theirs, but they’re acting like it’s their sole concern. Which is business as usual. “We have a majority, let’s not lose it, let’s keep it. Let’s keep those chairmanships.” Exactly what have those chairmanships done for us to save the Constitution in the last couple of years?

I am shocked by the Republicans today that I read in the Washington Post who yesterday threatened a filibuster if we … get back habeas corpus. The ruling out of habeas corpus with the help of the Democrats did not get us back to George the First it got us back to before King John 700 years ago in terms of counter-revolution.

We need some way, and Ann Wright has one way, of sitting in, in Conyers office and getting arrested. Ray McGovern has been getting arrested, pushed out the other day for saying the simple words “swear him in” when it came to testimony.

I think we’ve got to somehow get home to them [in Congress] that this is the time for them to uphold the oath, to preserve the Constitution, which is worth struggling for in part because it’s only with the power that the Constitution gives Congress responding to the public, only with that can we protect the world from mad men in power in the White House who intend an attack on Iran.

And the current generation of American generals and others who realize that this will be a catastrophe have not shown themselves – they might be people who in their past lives risked their bodies and their lives in Vietnam or elsewhere, like [Colin] Powell, and would not risk their career or their relation with the president to the slightest degree.

That has to change. And it’s the example of people like those up here who somehow brought home to our representatives that they as humans and as citizens have the power to do likewise and find in themselves the courage to protect this country and protect the world. Thank you.

Daniel Ellsberg is author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers.

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Republican candidates Questions

Authority and Obedience

Would you enforce a law which is against your religious beliefs?
Would you murder innocent people in the interest of national security?
What is more important - Loyalty or independence?

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Republican candidates Questions

Rule Of Law
Our constitution requires that the executive branch enforce the laws passed by congress. Will you swear to uphold the constitution and enforce the law of the land?

George Bush's administration has issued 134 signing statements challenging 810 federal laws. He also reduces to investigate billions of misting tax dollars stolen in Iraq.

What should we do with presidents like GW Bush who refuse to enforce the law when the leave office?

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Republican Candidate questions

SSI Version1
The 2007 Social Security Administration's annual report estimates that if we do not raise Social Security premiums, benefits will need to be cut by 25% starting in 2041. Since even Republicans do not want their own SSI benefits cut, simple arithmetic indicates that we must raise SSI insurance premiums to pay for the benefits we all want.

The same report estimates that increasing social security premiums by 2% from 12.4% to 14.4% will insure that we continue to receive 100% of due benefits after 2041. You are all on record as being against raising SSI premiums and against cutting benefits so where is the money going to come from? Santa Claus?

SSI Version2
To fully fund SSI beyond 2041 we have two basic options. If we do nothing, we will be forces to cut benefits by 25% in 2041. This will primarialy effect those who are under40. To insure full benefits, we can raise premiums by 2% of wages. Another option is to gamble with these SSI trust fund and invest it in wall street. What kind of man are you? Are you man enough to 'face the music' and raise premiums to pay for what we want? Or are you more of a gambler? Do you prefer to gamble with our money by investing in risky stocks in the hopes of getting a better return than securities? Or are you the kind of coward who prefers to let others face the consequences as they come due?

1) Pay for your meal.
2) Let your kids pay
3) Go to jail

SSI Version3
Many of us count on social security income for our retirement. After paying into it for our entire working lives, most Americans want to receive full SSI benefits which currently average just $1000 per month. If we do nothing, we will be forced to cut benefits by 25% in 35 from now in 2041.

To prevent this benefit cut, requires that we raise premiums by 2% of wages.

If it was your retirement, would you pay an additional 2% for full benefits or do you prefer a 25% lower income when you retire?

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Authority and Obedience vs Reason and Law

From Conservatives Without Conscience, by John Dean

Now, a few authoritarian leaders decide how and what the followers should believe.

This is what perplexes thoughtful people who attempt to engage in logical discussion with 'believers'.

We attempt to find common ground, try to use science and logic to find the best, most fair set of laws, and we commit to the rule of law because it's 'reasonable'.

While we are exploring the vast cerebral space of rational possibilities, our conservative colleagues literally inhabit a different universe. In that dark world, all that exists is authority. Logic is not necessary, merely blind obedience. Nothing done by authority or in obedience to authority is considered immoral. To oppose authority is the most dangerous of all actions.

Really, this is the way it is. And I have no idea how we are going to stop them from killing us all.

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Here is a fun place to start your day. Flickrvision shows new Flickr posts in real time on a rotating globe. Very cool to see all the posts from 'around' the world

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Strawberry Music Festival

I went to the Strawberry Music Festival over the weekend. What a great time. I was able to listened to some fantastic musicians, both on-stage and off. Not at all crowded or stressed. I particularly enjoyed Harry Manx and Jimmy Lafave. The crowd was great with lots of kids.

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Where are you from?

Click on the image to see a map of visitors to this website

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Slickr

Slickr is very cool. It will turn your PC into a pciture frame for the fabulous pictures being posted to Flickr. Get it here and install it today! Slickr

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Excellence vs Compromise

Inspired by the Apple iPod, iPhone or PC? How about Google Earth and other Google products? You should be it's about excellence in design and usage. Something to think about when designing a product and all the compromises we make.

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Health Care

Here is something that bugs me - the bu**sh** around health care. You have Medicare taking care of our elderly. The system works. It provides good health care at low cost. Even died-in-the-wool conservatives use it. It's a great model for universal health care. So why is government provide health care being demonized? I think it's the profit motive for health care management corporations. It's up to us to fight this mis characterization and defend the system.

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Google Earth and Sky

I'm a huge fan of Google Earth. They have now added a full astronomy database. Check out my recent posts here at the Google Earth Forum



Black Hole in the Galactic Center
Perseids
Crab Nebula

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Music Aug 2007

Music I'm listening to

- The Shins
- Air
- Cowboy Junkies
- Queens of the Stone Age
- Mando Diao
- Arctic Monkeys
- Bob Dylan

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Word choice

Words choices drive define our worldview. No one understands this better than professional propagandists. I'd like to keep a list here of some particularly damaging words and phrases provided by the neo-facists and a counter choice that more accurately captures the concept.
If we were to substitute the more accurate phrase, we would have a more productive conversation. More strongly, we can challenge the use of these words in order to move the conversation towards reality.

War in Iraq = Iraq Occupation

Surge = Escalation

Tax Cut = Tax borrowing

SSI will be bankrupt in 2040 = SSI reduction benefits by 15 % in 2-4

Tax breaks = Corporate Welfare

The rich pay all the taxes = the rich have all the money

Dems want Big Government = Dems want Efficient government

Republican = Authoritarian

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The Park formerly known as Glacier

The Glaciers in Glacier National at park will be gone at by 2030. Read about it here

Table 1. Projected mean summer temperature, precipitation, glacier melt, and glacier area remaining in Glacier National
Park, based on a carbon dioxide–doubling scenario.
Mean temperature, Percentage of 50-year
July to August (1931–1980) mean Glacier area predicted Remaining glacier area


Year, predicted glacier area (km2)
---------------------------------------------
1990, 5.05
2000, 3.89
2010, 2.44
2020, 0.62
2030, 0.00

Check out my question for the Republican presidential candidates on YouTube.

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Arctic Sea Ice is disappearing!

The Arctic icecap is or will soon be history. Check out this post from the NSIDC announcing the record ice cap shrinkage. It will be gone in our lifetime.

If we want to fix this we will need to sacrifice our CO2 emissions. This is not impossible.


Sept5 2007 Update
The icecap is now melted down to 4.4 M km^2. Looks like it is headed below 3M km^2. This is a 'seachange' to be sure

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Easy Fix for SSI

You may be under the impression that our Social Security System is somehow broken, and 'unfixable'. Turns out that's not quite right on both accounts. First it works quite well, and americans strongly support SSI. They want it to be funded. Lets ask what it would take to do that.

What would it take to fund SSI?

If you take a look at the SSI 2007 anual report you will see the following items:

• 
  

• The projected point at which tax revenues will fall below program costs comes in 2017 -- the same as the estimate in last year’s report.

• The projected point at which the Trust Funds will be exhausted comes in 2041 -- one year later than the projection in last year’s report.

• The projected actuarial deficit over the 75-year long-range period is 1.95 percent of taxable payroll -- .06 percentage point smaller than in last year’s report.

• During 2006, an estimated 162 million people had earnings covered by Social Security and paid payroll taxes.

• Social Security paid benefits of $546 billion in calendar year 2006. There were 49 million beneficiaries at the end of the calendar year.

• The cost of $5.3 billion to administer the program in 2006 was a very low 1.0 percent of total expenditures.

• The combined Trust Fund assets earned interest at an effective annual rate of 5.3 percent

• .

The key number here is the 'projected actuarial deficit over the 75-year long-range period' which is 1.95%. This is the amount we would need to raise SSI premiums. (payroll tax) to eliminate any reductions in benefits. Currently SSI recovers roughly 12.5 % of taxable income up to the 'salary cap' of $150K. To fully fund SSI, we must increase the premium by 15% to roughly 14.5 % (12.5%+1.95%). Alternately the cap could be eliminated. Eliminating the cap would also increase receipts by appx 15%.

Here is a web page which presents the basic data

Paying an extra 1.95% of our wages into SSI is unpalatable but it is affordable. If we really want our benefits, it's an easy choice.

Or we can wait to see if the trust fund will actually be depleted. The chart below tracks the trust fund's behavior under 3 different assumptions about the economy. Trace #1 assumes lower cost and higher growth. In these conditions, you can see that the trust fund never depletes itself. If fact for the last 7 years this low cost scenario has been closer to reality that the more expensive scenarios.




Here is a good page describing these issues

And here is an interesting table. It shows posted shortfall date pushing out as we get closer to the date. Not a lot of reason to get worried if the fund is not actually going to deplete!

Report date = Trustee report date
Shortfall year = Year when tax revenue falls short of benefits
Negative income = Year when trust fund income falls below expenditures
depletion date = Trust fund depletion date
payroll shortfall = Shortfall as a share of taxable payroll

Report date..... . 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2007
Shortfall year ....2012, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2017
negative income .. 2019, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2028,
depletion date ....2029, 2029, 2032, 2034, 2037, 2042, 2041
payroll shortfall .2.19% 2.23% 2.19% 2.07% 1.89% 1.89% 1.95%

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