September 23, 2005
File Under: Duh!
Pattern of Errors Emboldened Terrorists, Bush Says
The headline, at least. Wonder if it was on purpose.
Posted by dme at 02:12 PM | Comments (0)
March 31, 2005
We like him. He is a good guy.
I was recently asked by a five-year-old who the person on the penny was. I said, "That's Abraham Lincoln. We like him. He was a good guy.” And I damn near choked up.
I thought about that phrase when I got an email on Tuesday from MoveOn.org asking for money to help Senator Byrd in the 2006 campaign. I sent $50 on the spot.
Today I got this message from MoveOn
But as I write this email, only about two days after our email went out, 19,214 of us have given $817,403.76 to support Senator Byrd. It's a whopping amount in electoral politics--more than MoveOn members have given in support of any other Senator--and at this early stage, it'll make a tremendous impact. This could be a knock-out blow for Republicans who are considering running against the Senator.
It is awfully gratifying to send a little bit of cash and have it turn into $800k. And hopefully when that five-year-old grows up, it won’t seem like so many of the good guys are long gone.
Posted by dme at 03:20 PM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2005
No WMD Changes Nothing
Iraq didn’t have WMD. Now it is official and everybody knows. So this seems like as good at time as any to make a point I haven’t heard anyone articulate in the last 3 years.
We took a perceived risk to innocent civilians in the United States and weighed it against the certain death of innocent civilians in Iraq. Then we decided that we preferred the certain death of innocent civilians in Iraq. As it turns out, there were around 100,000 innocent civilians randomly killed. Half of the population of Iraq is under the age of 14.
Preemptive attack is not wrong when it’s a mistake. Preemptive attack is wrong because it might be a mistake. It is always wrong. Morally wrong.
I was raised to believe that Americans are gallant and noble people. And our actions, the sacrifices of my grandparents, during and after WWII were proof. There is nothing gallant or noble about trading the fear of harm to one person for the certain death and injury of another.
In writing this I thought to look up a letter that I sent in 2003. I haven’t changed my mind since then.
March 16, 2003President Bush,
I am writing to express my opposition to waging war against Iraq.
I base my opposition on these facts.
1. Iraq has not attacked the United States.
2. Iraq has not attacked any other nation.
3. An attack on Iraq would kill people.I have heard these reasons for war
1. Iraq might attack the U.S.A. or another nation.
2. We are tired of waiting for Iraq to comply with UN resolutions.Fear cannot justify war. Impatience cannot justify war. I believe war is only justified to stop direct, actual, violent, military attack on a nation or a people. This is simply not happening.
I believe that an attack on Iraq will spoil our relations with people and nations around the world for generations. I do not believe that this war will make the world safer for Americans or anyone else.
Posted by dme at 09:17 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 12, 2005
Go ahead, cut and paste
I'm really really sure Josh Marshall does not read my blog. So it was funny to see a post tonight that was so close to the letter I sent to my Senators.
I said : "I am 35 years old .... I can expect to get full benefits until I am 83 years old. After that, with no changes, the system is projected to cover 80% of my promised benefits."
Josh said: "I'm thirty-five .... I'll have no problem until 2052, when I'll be 83. After that, they say, there will be a reduction, but again not an overwhelming one."
Maybe I'll get a chance to hang out with him at the old folks home. And if he helps save Social Security, the first round of Ensure is on me.
Posted by dme at 12:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 11, 2005
Letters to my Senators
If you're not in the habit of writing letters to your elected representatives, Congress.org makes it very easy. I've been using it regularly for a couple of years.
Here is a letter I sent last week to John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison. Feel free to cut and paste if you share this sentiment. The stats came from this editorial in the New York Times by Paul Krugman.
I am genuinely concerned about the proposed privatization of Social Security. I am 35 years old. Without any changes to Social Security, I can expect to get full benefits until I am 83 years old. After that, with no changes, the system is projected to cover 80% of my promised benefits. That difference could be recovered by repealing the recent tax cuts given to people with incomes over $500,000.Privatization of Social Security has been disastrous in other countries. The real threat to Social Security is the deficit, and this plan adds trillions to it. The president is proposing changes that will lower my benefits up to 40% before I start collecting.
I frankly cannot understand who would support this plan unless they were simply ideologically opposed to Social Security. I’m looking to you for a moderate voice to save Social Security for my generation.
Sincerely,
David Erwin
The 2nd paragraph is a little choppy, and the part about the tax cuts for the rich reveals that I wouldn't vote for either of these nincompoops no matter what they do. But still, they need to know that we’re not buying this whole crisis nonsense.
Posted by dme at 10:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 30, 2004
Adding Zeros
There's been a bunch of debate about whether the US was called stingy with disaster relief for the tsunami in South East Asia or not. And not a lot of perspective. So here are two good comparisons.
1. $35 million is about the cost of the presidential inauguration ceremony next month.**
2. $35 million is about what we spend every 4 hours in Iraq.*
I’m not sure how much we should send, but when I heard $15 and then $35 million, I did think the amount was missing a zero or two. So last night I sent a couple of zeros ($100) to the Red Cross for disaster relief. And maybe that’s an idea worth passing on. A positive protest against a government whose priorities are wrong by at least 2 orders of magnitude. If you can, I encourage you to do the same.
* I saw this on a blog and don’t know what it is based on, so I did my own calculation. $200,000,000,000 divided by 700 days (about 2 years) divided by 6 (to get every 4 hours) equals about 47.6 million. Close enough.
** I’m not saying we’re spending too much on the ceremony. Not my area of expertise. It’s about the most important ceremony we have and it should be grand.
Posted by dme at 11:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 17, 2004
Headline from the Future
President Appoints Self to Cabinet PositionThe resignation of Donald Rumsfeld has long been anticipated, however in a bold move today, President Bush has nominated himself to be Secretary of Defense. At a press conference in the Rose Garden Bush said, “I’ve known George for more than fifty years. He has always been loyal and I know I can trust him. Besides, the inner circle was just tapped out.”
Posted by dme at 08:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 09, 2004
That didn't take long.
I saw this bumper sticker on the way out of Fry’s with my new (beautiful) camera. That was Sunday, Nov 7th. How long does it take to make bumper stickers anyway?
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Coloring Books!
Everywhere I look they're selling these coloring books. It's really fun, just get a red marker and draw horns and devil-beard every time you see a picture of this guy.
Posted by dme at 05:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What I did for democracy this year.
Attended Meetups for Howard Dean.
Attended benefit for the Texas Observer with Molly Ivans and Al Franken.
Donated money to Howard Dean ($150), John Kerry ($300), MoveOn($100), ACLU($200).
Attended Howard Dean and Wesley Clark rallies.
Posted messages to DNC, Dean for America, John Kerry, and Wesley Clark blogs.
Hosted a convention party.
Attended a public screening of Outfoxed.
Made calls for MoveOn.
Wrote letters to registered voters in Iowa and Florida.
Protested re-districting at the Texas state capitol.
Wrote letters to the President, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, John Cornyn, and Lloyd Doggett.
Wrote letters to the editor at Austin American Statesman.
Wrote to advertisers supporting Sinclair Broadcasting.
So there! My next post is going to be juvenile, and I deserve it.
Posted by dme at 05:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 07, 2004
Death and Populations
Juan Cole has written about a study published in The Lancet. It says that US and coalition forces have killed 100,000 civilians in Iraq. Mostly by bombs, mostly women and children.
I’ve seen some attempts to put this into perspective, “that would be the equivalent, in American population terms, of 1.1 million people here.”
That’s not right.
So here is my attempt to put this into perspective. Each pixel represents 3000 people. The bright red pixels each represent 3000 deaths. For Iraq, the recent war is represented (33 pixels=100,000 deaths). For the US, September 11, 2001 is represented (1 pixel=3000 deaths).
In addition to death as a proportion of population, I made an assumption that 100 friends, family, colleagues of each person would be affected. They are represented by dark red.
Posted by dme at 06:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 06, 2004
Red States in the Red: Post Election
We didn't see it coming, so now everybody is looking. If there is a shred of anything to enjoy after this election, it's all the political maps. The closest to getting the real picture is this one.
The "red states take and blue states give" issue has been popping back up, so I gave this graphic a refresh with the final election results.
The trend is even more striking. I don't think it means what it implies. It implies that the red states are greedy freeloaders, or that the red states enjoy the favor of a biased federal government. I'm not cynical enough to think this is the real story.
This is just two trends that both depend on population density. People who live in dense, diverse populations have more exposure to people-who-are-not-like-me. For this reason they don't support wars that hurt and kill people-who-are-not-like-me, or laws that restrict the rights of people-who-are-not-like-me.
The other trend is the efficiency of spending government money. It's just cheaper to serve people who live close to each other. Hawaii is an exception to this trend, and it debunks the red-states-greedy-blue-states-generous idea. It's just more expensive to send services half way around the world.
Posted by dme at 05:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 03, 2004
First Post-Debate Presidential Poll
From Newsweek Oct 3, 2004, a poll of 1,013 registered voters.
These numbers are from the first post-debate poll. (The photo they are using of Bush is a little merciless.)
It's odd to me that they report the results in prose, with the margin of error in a footnote. I think a reader could absorb the same information, more accurately, more memorably, and an order of magnitude faster in the above format.
Posted by dme at 02:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 28, 2004
In the Red with the Fed
The graph below was inspired by this post at Daily Kos saying that Republican states take more money from the federal government than Democratic states.
I took these numbers from The Tax Foundation and crossed them with the latest Newsweek poll.
Red = Republican
Light Red = Republican Leaning
Gray = Swing State
Light Blue = Democrat Leaning
Blue = Democrat
At the top of the graph, North Dakota gets $2.08 for every dollar it sends to Washington (shown as -$1.08). At the bottom, New Jersey gets 62 cents for every dollar (shown as +$0.38).
I'm not sure if this means anything, but it is striking how the two trends synch up.
Posted by dme at 10:54 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 27, 2004
Million, Billion, Tomato, Tomahto
Quick, million is to billion, as a penny is to:
A. A penny
B. A dime
C. A dollar
D. Ten dollars
E. All of the above
Answer: E, if you’re not really paying attention.
Here’s the difference in pixels.
If the words “million” and “billion” were proportional in length, billion would be spelled like this.
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Anyway, from Ted Kennedy’s speech today.
“The Bush Administration can't account for 8 billion dollars in Iraqi oil funds.”
This is what he was referencing.
Posted by dme at 10:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 24, 2004
Time for a Timeline
I found the information for this timeline on Whitehouse.gov, JohnKerry.com and Google searches like, “John Kerry biography”, “George Bush biography” “John Kerry arrested”, “George Bush arrested.”
After finding just about everything I was looking for, I stumbled on two entries in Wikipedia. Everything I had found was double-checked and a few things I was still looking for were added.
Wikipedia: George W. Bush
Wikipedia: John Kerry
Still there are years I just couldn’t account for. What did George Bush do in the years after he graduated from Harvard? The Whitehouse says he moved to Midland, TX to pursue a career in the oil business, but it took him about 4 years to get started. One run for Congress, getting married and a DUI does not account for all that time. Kerry’s most undefined time is between military service and Law School. In that time he was an anti-war leader, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, ran for Congress, got married, and had a child. Seems like a solid 3 years.
I tried to keep it factual, but when are facts partisan? Is it fair to list both men’s arrests? Clearly one fairs better than the other. Bush was arrested for getting drunk at a football game, stealing a Christmas tree while drunk, and drunk driving. Kerry was arrested with 440 other people for protesting the Vietnam war. How should I note the years where Bush was President? I chose Recession, 9/11, War, War, War. All true partisan facts.
Posted by dme at 09:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 15, 2004
Study: CNN Objects to Americans
A screen grab from early July.
Posted by dme at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)
Definition Seeks Word
******* n. 1. an imbalance of power that perpetuates itself; “A legislature should not draw it’s own maps, that just creates a *******”; “I had to close the shop after Walmart came to town, but that’s ******* for you.”
Am I just spacing on this? There’s gotta be a word for that.
Posted by dme at 08:11 PM | Comments (5)
My New Congressional District
The black outline shows the old District 10. Now that area is divided onto 3 districts.
The little black dot in a green tendril of the new District 10 is where I live. I buy groceries in District 21, just like people in San Antonio do. And when I rent a DVD, I go to District 25 which includes McAllen on the Mexican border.
So, last year, someone looked at a map of my neighborhood and saw that 65% of my neighbors voted for Democrats. Then they drew a line from here to Houston. The district is so Republican that the Democrats didn’t even run a candidate.
If you live in the new District 10, be sure to write this fellow in when you vote.
The new (1.6mb pdf) and old (1.6mb pdf) maps can be found here.
Posted by dme at 12:35 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 10, 2004
A New Low for Typography
I was a little happy today to see two of my favotrite obsessions merge: Politics and Typography. But then I started to notice an attitude that somehow this was a new low for politics.
I'm not going to spend the day arguing about fonts and typewriters, because the whole thing is so goddamn stupid...
With a catch phrase like "W stands for wrong," is it any wonder that the political debate of the day is about kerning?
Posted by dme at 05:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Margin of Error
I've been thinking about how people react to polling numbers, and how that margin of error seems so important when your guy is behind but not when he's ahead.
First image is a hypothetical presidential poll with 4 pixels per point and +/- 3% shown as 24 pixel blur. The second uses real numbers from Gallup, but I'm not putting the numbers, because they imply more precision than really exists.
Posted by dme at 11:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack