It’s a Start

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I recently read a report written by Rep. John Conyers, Jr. called The Constitution in Crisis; The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, and Coverups in the Iraq War and Illegal Domestic Surveillance.

So far, I think it’s a pretty solid representation of the White House’s and GOP’s violations. If you take the time to read through the sources, they are reliable, and the report overall is well written.

If you don’t read anything else, at least read the intro, where you’ll find things like:

The media, though showing some signs of aggressiveness as of late, is increasingly concentrated and all too often unwilling to risk the enmity or legal challenge from the party in charge.
…
As Martin Luther King told us, “there comes a time when silence is betrayal.” None of us should be bullied or intimidated when the executive branch charges that those who would criticize their actions are “aiding the terrorists” and “giving ammunition to America’s enemies,” or when they warn that “Americans need to watch what they say,” as this Administration has done.

If you haven’t seen Good Night, and Good Luck, you’ll see some parallels between the current administration, its “free press” and how things were arranged during the rise of McArthyism.

To me, this all has been disturbing for some time. Even talking to my family and friends is tough, because they, like so many people are unwilling to let go of the infallibility of the president and the ivory tower he lives in.

I’m not sure where the “it’s completely wrong to question things” mindset comes from, but it is sickening. I’ve even been called a “hippie” just because I think something feels very wrong about how a single political party backed by narrow-minded numbnuts is trying to nullify our nation’s checks and balances.

Call me a hippie, I guess. Call me worse if you want. Doesn’t change the fact that some people in Washington DC are circumventing the laws they swore to respect and uphold.

Nice job, Rep. Conyers. At least someone is willing to write “news that matters”.

Victory for France?

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I read an interesting article about Floyd Landis’ doping today. My gut feeling is the sport is so oversensitive that when someone wins it’s just natural to assume they are doping and fart in their general direction.

Especially if you are French, and the guy winning is another American.

But hey, why should we care anyway?

The French can have their strangely convenient and isolated blip on an otherwise clean record that ironically wouldn’t even help a cyclist overnight.

It’s too bad Floyd is paying the price for American dominance in cycling. (Of course, if he did cheat, I’m an ass.) … (Well, either way…)

Hawai’i Vacation

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jaime at punchbowl national cemetery

Vacation is almost over. Looking forward (kind of) to coming back home to Corvallis and seeing the cats. Not looking forward to the heat though.

I’m also looking forward to getting back to work! Lots of things to take care of.

See more of our Hawai’i photos.

You can’t vacation forever. You’d go insane.

Specter Does it Again

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My buddy Alan Specter had his puppet strings pulled again. Read all about it.

The only thing missing here is Bush’s mandate of God. Hey, I thought we declared independence from this kind of bullshit hundreds of years ago?

Ehren the Brave

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My cousin Lt. Ehren Watada is facing a rough road ahead as he sacrifices himself in an effort to wake up the United States government and the silent majority of this nation.

Ehren is a brave man to choose this path when so many before him could have but didn’t. Most people our age are thinking about starting a family, buying a house, settling down. Ehren is trying to change the course of history.

But he can’t do it alone. After all, a democracy isn’t about Ehren and what he says as an individual. It’s about a nation participating as a whole to systematically determine its future course. It’s about electing moral and strong leaders who accept responsibility for their mistakes and look forward.

Ehren is doing this because our nation should have done better, could have done better when deciding to wage an all out war on another country under false pretenses. He’s doing what our leaders haven’t. He’s doing what we haven’t done.

He is saying this war is wrong and it needs to end. It’d be nice if the rest of us could do the same.

Send Ehren your support, he needs every last bit.

Enum to Int Conversion in MySQL

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Thought I’d post this since it was interesting. If you convert an enum to an int (don’t ask) be aware of the following conversion:

mysql> create table foo ( bar enum('0','1') not null default '0' );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

mysql> insert into foo values('0');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> insert into foo values('1');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select * from foo;
+-----+
| bar |
+-----+
| 0   |
| 1   |
+-----+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> alter table foo change bar bar tinyint(1) not null default 0;
Query OK, 2 rows affected (0.01 sec)
Records: 2  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql> select * from foo;
+-----+
| bar |
+-----+
|   1 |
|   2 |
+-----+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

MySQL will assign int values corresponding to the non-zero-index of the enum. So, after the migration/conversion you can then use:

mysql> update foo set bar=bar-1;

Or, if you had a more complex enum you could update all corresponding indexes with their correct int values. At least they remain unique so you can adjust.

SQL is fun. For me to poop on.

Drugs Rule

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If you don’t live with me, you wouldn’t know that I’ve been pretty messed up lately by allergies. This year has been a particularly bad year, and I’ve been pretty much taken out by hay fever and sinus problems.

So I broke down and went to an allergist and they put me on:

  • prednisone
  • allegra-d
  • patanol
  • mometasone

And I have to say – man these are awesome. Less than two hours after my first dosages I feel normal again. No side effects (yet).

Anyway, just wanted to give props to allergy meds. They do actually make a big difference to a lot of people.

(allergy) Drugs are great!

Election Drives New Legislation

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Why has our legislature magically started to show up to work?

I think a quote from my favorite over-inflated gas bag in a recent article on CNN.com sums it up best:

In the closing moments of Senate floor debate last week, Specter looked ahead to the conference committee meetings and reminded fellow Republicans that midterm elections are looming.

“There is an important issue, political issue, about the ability of Republicans to govern,” the Judiciary Committee chairman said. “There is an election in November, and our leadership positions as Republicans is on the line. And I think that will weigh heavily in the conference.”

– CNN.com, Bush calls for House, Senate compromise on immigration

Has white noise in the media gotten so loud that the head of the senate judiciary committee — a group dedicated to fairness and lack of bias — can openly declare that legislative decisions for the people are being decided based on personal agendas of officials elected to represent them?

Have we grown so numb that we don’t even care?

If the new bills and the timing of immigration reform, tax breaks for the rich and anti-abortion legislation around the nation, and anti-gay bills backed by conservatives isn’t enough — this should serve as at least a little warning to those of you who blindly support anything people like Specter and Frist spoon-feed you.

Please, please, try to listen and understand what is really going on, and while you’re at it, vote for anybody (from either party) who won’t be thinking of themselves when they are voting and discussing these important issues.

These laws and others like them should be decided solely based on what is right and just for the American people. They shouldn’t be stepping stones for prolonging the political careers of people with questionable motives and secret agendas.

Election-driven legislation represents the core of what plagues our government. It is another external influence injected into a once honorable profession, and threatens our freedom more than any terrorist.