You don't believe we're on the eve....
I go to bed tonight hoping that the Bush Administration will not spring some last-minute plan to disrupt the election tomorrow. I go to bed hoping and praying that the election will go smoothly, but dreading that it will be tainted by fraud and by blatant Bush administration attempts to suppress democracy to preserve its profitable, cozy grip on power. I find myself wondering whether, if exit polls begin to go against the ruling administration, there will be "terrorist" attacks intended to panick the remainder of the electorate into voting for a warmonger.
Am I paranoid? Or are these thoughts rational when the ruling administration has shown itself to have no moral or ethical principals whatsoever in its singleminded, Machiavellian pursuit of power, profit, and personal aggrandizement? Can it be that the only reason democracy has survived thus far in the U.S. is because no political administration thus far has been amoral and vicious enough to subvert or defy it?
Is it rational for me to wonder whether the Bush Administration, which believes itself to be anointed by God and (more importantly) to have the unquestioning support of the military, will accept the results of any election that goes against it? Or to wonder whether the votes cast will even be counted?
For you who are on the fence, or contemplating voting for Bush: Consider the various proposals that the Bush Administration has floated as "trial balloons" in the past couple of years, and then backed down on because they feared the loss of popular support. Cancelling elections. PATRIOT II. Enabling corporations to import vast numbers of indentured servants from the Third World to replace American workers. Consider its chutzpah in starting a bloody war on blatantly fraudulent premises, and using that war to funnel billions of dollars to its business cronies in no-bid contracts so openly rigged that the FBI is investigating them even in the face of likely retaliation from an administration whose notorious penchant for petty vengeance has led it to betray CIA agents in order to "get back" at their spouses for criticizing it. Consider the President's assertions that he and his operatives have the legal power to seize anyone, at any time, and plunge them into a black hole of perpetual incarceration without trial, without legal representation, without family contact or judicial review or public acknowledgement of any kind. To "disappear" people in the style of the old-fashioned South American goon squads. To torture and degrade prisoners in total disregard of international treaties and basic human decency.
Now consider what that same administration would be like in a second term, with no Constitutional incentive to care about popular opinion.
If you consider Bush and Kerry to be equally offensive, consider this: Kerry will at least have an incentive to acknowledge public opinion if he wants to be re-electable in 2008.
If you are morally offended by Kerry's unwillingness to outlaw abortion, consider this: is Bush's insistence on smugly sending thousands of adult men and women out to die or to wreak havoc on tens of thousands of other human beings in an unwarranted war any morally superior?
I grant that the bulk of the American populace may, in fact, be blinkered and ignorant enough to blindly follow Bush down the path toward further destruction of America's historical tradition of political and economic liberty. As P.T. Barnum famously said, no one ever went broke by underestimating the intelligence of the public. I hope that this is not the case. I don't think it is.
And I go to bed hoping that when the tumult and the shouting dies tomorrow, the tumult and the shouting will be all that dies.
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Of Canada and satellite dishes
This legal news from up north might be of interest to one or two readers. Slashdot discussion here, along with discussion of the British Columbia privacy minister's reaction to the US goverment's insistence on indiscriminate data-mining via the so-called "PATRIOT" Act and other means.
This legal news from up north might be of interest to one or two readers. Slashdot discussion here, along with discussion of the British Columbia privacy minister's reaction to the US goverment's insistence on indiscriminate data-mining via the so-called "PATRIOT" Act and other means.
Bush spreads lies again
Remember the Bush campaign's telephone smear campaign against John McCain in the 2000 Republican primary? The one in which Bush used anonymous automated telephone diallers to smear McCain with false charges at the last minute?
Guess what.
That's right, they're doing it again. The Detroit Free Press and the Daily Kos weblog are reporting a surge of automated, anonymous telephone calls in Michigan, all either seeking to link Kerry with the phrase "gay marriage" or to fraudulently direct voters in Democratic districts to incorrect polling locations.
If anyone out there's contemplating voting for Bush, at this point you're doing so consciously knowing that you are voting for lies, bigotry, and deliberate subversion of democracy.
Remember the Bush campaign's telephone smear campaign against John McCain in the 2000 Republican primary? The one in which Bush used anonymous automated telephone diallers to smear McCain with false charges at the last minute?
Guess what.
That's right, they're doing it again. The Detroit Free Press and the Daily Kos weblog are reporting a surge of automated, anonymous telephone calls in Michigan, all either seeking to link Kerry with the phrase "gay marriage" or to fraudulently direct voters in Democratic districts to incorrect polling locations.
If anyone out there's contemplating voting for Bush, at this point you're doing so consciously knowing that you are voting for lies, bigotry, and deliberate subversion of democracy.
An interesting challenge for law students:
Find a way to make sharia law compatible with human rights.
Find a way to make sharia law compatible with human rights.
More Bush campaign dirty tricks
Old news, I'm afraid, since I haven't had much time for blogging lately. But for the benefit of anyone who hasn't read it elsewhere:
"Former employees of a Republican-controlled company, Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes, which conducted voter registration drives in Nevada, have blown the whistle on its practice of selectively destroying the registration forms of people who attempted to register as Democrats.
"Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.
"'We caught her taking Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her assistant and he ripped them up right in front of us. I grabbed some of them out of the garbage and she tells her assisatnt to get those from me,'" said Eric Russell, former Voters Outreach employee.
"Eric Russell managed to retrieve a pile of shredded paperwork including signed voter registration forms, all from Democrats. We took them to the Clark County Election Department and confirmed that they had not, in fact, been filed with the county as required by law.
"So the people on those forms who think they will be able to vote on Election Day are sadly mistaken...."
"The company has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National Committee."
The Republican-funded company reportedly skipped out on its Nevada landlord without paying the rent and flew (by night, presumably) to Oregon, where it busily committed further election fraud on behalf of its paymasters. Just another example of the "moral values" loudly touted by the current crop of Republicans.
More here, here, here.
Old news, I'm afraid, since I haven't had much time for blogging lately. But for the benefit of anyone who hasn't read it elsewhere:
"Former employees of a Republican-controlled company, Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes, which conducted voter registration drives in Nevada, have blown the whistle on its practice of selectively destroying the registration forms of people who attempted to register as Democrats.
"Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.
"'We caught her taking Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her assistant and he ripped them up right in front of us. I grabbed some of them out of the garbage and she tells her assisatnt to get those from me,'" said Eric Russell, former Voters Outreach employee.
"Eric Russell managed to retrieve a pile of shredded paperwork including signed voter registration forms, all from Democrats. We took them to the Clark County Election Department and confirmed that they had not, in fact, been filed with the county as required by law.
"So the people on those forms who think they will be able to vote on Election Day are sadly mistaken...."
"The company has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National Committee."
The Republican-funded company reportedly skipped out on its Nevada landlord without paying the rent and flew (by night, presumably) to Oregon, where it busily committed further election fraud on behalf of its paymasters. Just another example of the "moral values" loudly touted by the current crop of Republicans.
More here, here, here.
Libraries are thieves!
Old news, but still entertaining: the Writers Against Piracy. "Put down the library book, and back away slowly...."
Old news, but still entertaining: the Writers Against Piracy. "Put down the library book, and back away slowly...."
Of G.W. Bush and solipsism
Apparently, not only does the Bush Administration not care what the rest of the world thinks, they don't want the rest of the world to know what they think.
Durn furriners. Y'all just shet up an' do what yer told!
Apparently, not only does the Bush Administration not care what the rest of the world thinks, they don't want the rest of the world to know what they think.
Durn furriners. Y'all just shet up an' do what yer told!
Monday, November 01, 2004
Conference report, days two, three, and four (belated)
Blogging the succeeding days of the conference turned out to be more difficult than anticipated, due to limited availability of internet terminals and time.
The exhibitors' hall was somewhat smaller and attracted fewer vendors than the ones at prior Texas L.A. and American L.A. conferences I've attended, but I came across a few interesting regional publishers and distributors I wouldn't have found otherwise. At the library association sales table, amongst the high-priced and (ironically) poorly-indexed directories of state associations, lacquered jewelry, library-themed tchotchkes, and recent books by conference-attending authors, someone was selling bars of all-natural "librarian-made" soap in various flavors (pumpkin, rose petals, etc.) I asked her if she'd read Fight Club. She laughed knowingly. I didn't buy any soap. Others did, however; she was sold out by the second day.
The keynote speaker on the first day discussed at some length the various impacts that he thinks technology will have on libraries. Although a great deal of what he said regarding the social impact of constant electronically-enabled social connectedness made sense, I suspect that some of those few who read this blog will take exception to his statement that "bloggers don't care about privacy." It was the first, but not the last, time that the concept of privacy was dismissed as old-fashioned and no longer relevant to the modern, wired, interconnected world.
Gleanings from various sessions and workshops throughout the conference:
The state electronic library plans to change their interface this coming January. I can't see anything wrong with the current interface, but I guess Change is Good (TM).
A speaker on internet privacy recommended ZoneAlarm as a good free-or-cheap downloadable firewall to protect personal computers from viruses, trojans, etc. (Any thoughts/reviews from those more technically savvy than myself?) He also suggested, without overtly saying so, that a dismaying number of government computers were distressingly vulnerable to such malware. The fact that many such computers have access to citizens' private information was duly noted.
All Music Group has good swag at their presentations. I picked up a couple of nice classic-jazz compilation CDs at their presentation table before rudely skedaddling to another talk. (So sue me.) It occurs to me to wonder about the ethics of having commercial vendors do scheduled presentations about their for-profit products on the same featured basis as non-commercial speakers, meetings of professional interest groups, etc.
I sat in on a session about "use and creation of portfolios for professional development" in academic libraries. Who knows? Such information may someday be useful to me. While waiting for the presentation to begin, I noticed that one of the tech people from Suburban Public Library was also sitting in the room. Was she contemplating a job switch into the academic world, I wondered? And what did she think about seeing me in the room? It turned out she was receiving an award from the group sponsoring the talk. Thinking quickly, I grabbed my digital camera out of my briefcase and snapped a picture. Then I sat through the rest of the talk, about how to organize a portfolio for tenure review and/or promotion in academic libraries, as if it were a boring but necessary adjunct to getting her photo.
Meeting people from both "Huron State" and Suburban Public Library throughout the conference was slightly awkward. It was as if I were trying to negotiate a social event while juggling two dates. (Which, for the record, I have never done, and never intend to do.) Fortunately, the Huron State folks made it rather easy for me by not inviting me to go to lunch with them or otherwise interact with them for much longer than the space of a brief hallway conversation or two. The SPL folks were more friendly, which isn't particularly surprising considering that SPL was willing to pay my way to the conference and Huron State wasn't. I was a bit annoyed when I found that the other SPL folks were staying at the ritzy conference hotel while I roughed it at a cheaper chain hotel five miles down the road. But I shouldn't complain about it. I could have insisted on staying at the conference hotel, even when the head of reference darkly hinted that, for a part-timer, low conference expenditures would be a good idea. (Really, I don't mind that they had in-room jacuzzis while I had a dank chain-hotel swimming pool with cloudy water. Or that they had dinner and drinks in a top-floor-of-the-skyscraper bar and restaurant overlooking the bay while I gnawed on bread and cheese and apples from a cardboard box, or that they had spectacular tenth-floor views of the autumn colors of the northern Michigan forests while I had a first-floor view of a parking lot. Really, I don't mind. Believe me. Not at all. Nope.)
Thursday afternoon, a presentation billed as Business for Beginners turned out to be an overview of small-business-startup resources available from a particular state agency and other sources, rather than the more general discussion of current, general business-reference resources that I'd hoped for. But I did get some useful lists of resources for the occasional library user who's contemplating starting a business.
The "best of the best" presentation about exemplary small-library programs and projects in the state featured the director of the library of my former residence in the U.P. and, among other things, the display of wedding gowns and other feminine stuff that she and the local historical society had put on at the library. After the talk, I inquired about the status of their unique and extensive archival collection on a very interesting Yooper railroad. Fortunately, it seems they are in the process of digitizing portions of it, and took my e'mail address to send me further information. Unfortunately, I haven't heard anything from them since.
Thursday night, having opted out of the $38-a-plate dinner with accompanying celebrity speech, I decided to walk from the El Cheapo Motel to the local downtown for dinner. Bad idea. Three miles later, I turned around and started walking back. In the rain. Cold rain. At least I slept well once I got back.
The Friday morning presentation on library weblogs didn't tell me much I didn't already know, but it did inspire me to think that SPL might benefit from public and/or staff weblogs, and that if I were to suggest and implement such a thing it might actually look like a technological "achievement". (Gotta think about that portfolio.)
The motivational speaker at the end of the conference didn't particularly appeal to me, but others seemed to like her. Spent the rest of the afternoon driving up the very narrow peninsula north of Traverse City, past beachfront property that I'll never be able to afford and many, many acres of cherry trees and vineyards, to the Old Mission Point Lighthouse, where I snapped a photo of granddad's Land Yacht posed in front of the lighthouse, under a sign announcing the 45th parallel, the halfway point between the equator and the North Pole. I figured he might enjoy seeing how far north it's ventured. (The lighthouse, by the way, seems to be a private residence. It must be strange to live there, with tourists constantly walking by, gawking and taking pictures of your house from ten or twenty feet away.)
The Land Yacht performed flawlessly on the road, surging along the road like a battleship ponderously but effortlessly shouldering its way through the waves.
And so home, and so to bed.
Blogging the succeeding days of the conference turned out to be more difficult than anticipated, due to limited availability of internet terminals and time.
The exhibitors' hall was somewhat smaller and attracted fewer vendors than the ones at prior Texas L.A. and American L.A. conferences I've attended, but I came across a few interesting regional publishers and distributors I wouldn't have found otherwise. At the library association sales table, amongst the high-priced and (ironically) poorly-indexed directories of state associations, lacquered jewelry, library-themed tchotchkes, and recent books by conference-attending authors, someone was selling bars of all-natural "librarian-made" soap in various flavors (pumpkin, rose petals, etc.) I asked her if she'd read Fight Club. She laughed knowingly. I didn't buy any soap. Others did, however; she was sold out by the second day.
The keynote speaker on the first day discussed at some length the various impacts that he thinks technology will have on libraries. Although a great deal of what he said regarding the social impact of constant electronically-enabled social connectedness made sense, I suspect that some of those few who read this blog will take exception to his statement that "bloggers don't care about privacy." It was the first, but not the last, time that the concept of privacy was dismissed as old-fashioned and no longer relevant to the modern, wired, interconnected world.
Gleanings from various sessions and workshops throughout the conference:
The state electronic library plans to change their interface this coming January. I can't see anything wrong with the current interface, but I guess Change is Good (TM).
A speaker on internet privacy recommended ZoneAlarm as a good free-or-cheap downloadable firewall to protect personal computers from viruses, trojans, etc. (Any thoughts/reviews from those more technically savvy than myself?) He also suggested, without overtly saying so, that a dismaying number of government computers were distressingly vulnerable to such malware. The fact that many such computers have access to citizens' private information was duly noted.
All Music Group has good swag at their presentations. I picked up a couple of nice classic-jazz compilation CDs at their presentation table before rudely skedaddling to another talk. (So sue me.) It occurs to me to wonder about the ethics of having commercial vendors do scheduled presentations about their for-profit products on the same featured basis as non-commercial speakers, meetings of professional interest groups, etc.
I sat in on a session about "use and creation of portfolios for professional development" in academic libraries. Who knows? Such information may someday be useful to me. While waiting for the presentation to begin, I noticed that one of the tech people from Suburban Public Library was also sitting in the room. Was she contemplating a job switch into the academic world, I wondered? And what did she think about seeing me in the room? It turned out she was receiving an award from the group sponsoring the talk. Thinking quickly, I grabbed my digital camera out of my briefcase and snapped a picture. Then I sat through the rest of the talk, about how to organize a portfolio for tenure review and/or promotion in academic libraries, as if it were a boring but necessary adjunct to getting her photo.
Meeting people from both "Huron State" and Suburban Public Library throughout the conference was slightly awkward. It was as if I were trying to negotiate a social event while juggling two dates. (Which, for the record, I have never done, and never intend to do.) Fortunately, the Huron State folks made it rather easy for me by not inviting me to go to lunch with them or otherwise interact with them for much longer than the space of a brief hallway conversation or two. The SPL folks were more friendly, which isn't particularly surprising considering that SPL was willing to pay my way to the conference and Huron State wasn't. I was a bit annoyed when I found that the other SPL folks were staying at the ritzy conference hotel while I roughed it at a cheaper chain hotel five miles down the road. But I shouldn't complain about it. I could have insisted on staying at the conference hotel, even when the head of reference darkly hinted that, for a part-timer, low conference expenditures would be a good idea. (Really, I don't mind that they had in-room jacuzzis while I had a dank chain-hotel swimming pool with cloudy water. Or that they had dinner and drinks in a top-floor-of-the-skyscraper bar and restaurant overlooking the bay while I gnawed on bread and cheese and apples from a cardboard box, or that they had spectacular tenth-floor views of the autumn colors of the northern Michigan forests while I had a first-floor view of a parking lot. Really, I don't mind. Believe me. Not at all. Nope.)
Thursday afternoon, a presentation billed as Business for Beginners turned out to be an overview of small-business-startup resources available from a particular state agency and other sources, rather than the more general discussion of current, general business-reference resources that I'd hoped for. But I did get some useful lists of resources for the occasional library user who's contemplating starting a business.
The "best of the best" presentation about exemplary small-library programs and projects in the state featured the director of the library of my former residence in the U.P. and, among other things, the display of wedding gowns and other feminine stuff that she and the local historical society had put on at the library. After the talk, I inquired about the status of their unique and extensive archival collection on a very interesting Yooper railroad. Fortunately, it seems they are in the process of digitizing portions of it, and took my e'mail address to send me further information. Unfortunately, I haven't heard anything from them since.
Thursday night, having opted out of the $38-a-plate dinner with accompanying celebrity speech, I decided to walk from the El Cheapo Motel to the local downtown for dinner. Bad idea. Three miles later, I turned around and started walking back. In the rain. Cold rain. At least I slept well once I got back.
The Friday morning presentation on library weblogs didn't tell me much I didn't already know, but it did inspire me to think that SPL might benefit from public and/or staff weblogs, and that if I were to suggest and implement such a thing it might actually look like a technological "achievement". (Gotta think about that portfolio.)
The motivational speaker at the end of the conference didn't particularly appeal to me, but others seemed to like her. Spent the rest of the afternoon driving up the very narrow peninsula north of Traverse City, past beachfront property that I'll never be able to afford and many, many acres of cherry trees and vineyards, to the Old Mission Point Lighthouse, where I snapped a photo of granddad's Land Yacht posed in front of the lighthouse, under a sign announcing the 45th parallel, the halfway point between the equator and the North Pole. I figured he might enjoy seeing how far north it's ventured. (The lighthouse, by the way, seems to be a private residence. It must be strange to live there, with tourists constantly walking by, gawking and taking pictures of your house from ten or twenty feet away.)
The Land Yacht performed flawlessly on the road, surging along the road like a battleship ponderously but effortlessly shouldering its way through the waves.
And so home, and so to bed.
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