Jesse Bickel dot com

Today’s top presidential story from the BBC focuses on comments about lipstick.

The controversy began on Tuesday after Mr Obama said his rival was advocating change while pursuing the politics of the current Bush administration.

Mr McCain’s campaign accused him of smearing running mate Sarah Palin.

Mrs Palin joked last week that lipstick was all that separated a “hockey mom” and a pitbull.

‘Made-up’ controversy

Mr Obama made the remark during a rally in Virginia where he accused the McCain campaign of trying suddenly to adopt the promise of change - a platform he himself has been running on for months.

Drawing a link between the Republican senator for Arizona and President George W Bush, he suggested change would be impossible for Mr McCain to achieve.

“You can put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig. You can wrap up an old fish in a piece of paper and call it change. It’s still going to stink after eight years. We’ve had enough.”

A click or two removed from the RSS feed of the BBC, you can find Ron Paul urging a vote for other parties. Let’s go with CNN’s version for insight:

“I’ve come to the conclusion, after having spent many years in politics, is that our presidential elections turn out to be more of a charade than anything else, and I think that is true today. It is a charade,” he said.

Paul offered an open endorsement to the four candidates because each signed onto a policy statement that calls for “balancing budgets, bring troops home, personal liberties and investigating the Federal Reserve,” an aide to the congressman said.

Paul is telling America to vote for Baldwin, Barr, McKinney, or Nader. I know a lot of you think those candidates are crazy, but please take a look at the first article I linked to. Both Obama and McCain accuse the other of not offering change, and avoiding real issues, all the while avoiding real issues and not offering real change. As my dear mother would point out, it’s an opportunity to ask “who is really crazy?”

Please, voters, wake up and realize our foreign policy will not change with either of the establishment candidates. Our monetary policy will not even be spoken about by either of the establishment candidates. Our fiscal irresponsibility will not be addressed by either of the establishment candidates. The national debt will grow with either Obama or McCain. Troops will be sent all over the world with either McCain or Obama. Our civil liberties will disappear with either candidate. Ron Paul is right - this is the time to vote for a candidate that discusses the real issues and offers real change.

Putin made comments today to the effect that the Georgian attack on South Ossetia was a US orchestrated event to assist a political candidacy.

He’s not the first to say this, and it’s not unreasonable. Did you know that the US has been arming and supporting the Georgian leadership? Did you notice how McCain’s polling improved immediately? It’s not guaranteed to be the truth, but it makes sense. Here are the stories I watched last week and found to be a better commentary than CNN, BBC, etc.

Please take the time to watch half of the following series from the so-called “Real News.” If you want to watch only the half relevant to Putin’s comments, start with part 3 and watch part 4 too. I’ve listed links below for parts 1 and 2.

Part 3 (this is the segment where they discuss the possibilities Putin is talking about):

Part 4:

If you want to watch the whole piece, here are the other parts.
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIe53ajZKhs
Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIdDc_YLeQs

A 56-year-old man from the Midwestern US state of Wisconsin has been arrested after shooting his lawn mower in his garden because it would not start.

The BBC headline was “US man charged for shooting mower.” The article is presented as a silly story with a happy ending. Some drunkard is wielding an illegal assault weapon and now he’s probably going to jail. “Thank God” readers agree, “just look at the picture of this wacko!”

If you try to figure out what happened, a great deal of information is missing in the AP release.

Police found the shotgun, a handgun and a stungun, as well as ammunition, when they detained Mr Walendowski in the basement of his house.

First of all, how did the police even find out about this incident? Who called the cops and where is that person’s story? Secondly, how did they get into the man’s house? Did they obtain a warrant or just follow him in? Finally, what does “detained” in this situation mean?

At a glance, the story is laughable and silly: some drunk shot his lawnmower and now he’s in trouble. But under the surface the story is a clear testament to the level of government intervention in private lives. The man owns a shotgun. Last I checked, there is a clear provision for gun ownership in our constitution. The man was drinking. Last I checked, there is a clear provision for alcohol use in our constitution. The man was on his own property, with his own shotgun, shooting his own lawnmower. And he was detained in his own basement. Last I checked, there is a clear provision against police action of this kind in our constitution.

Any US Citizen reading the story should be appalled at the level of control the state asserts in our lives.

I misplaced my ID before flying this week (see the earlier post about ID requirements). The experience was not as involved as the other story I had read.

When asked for ID by each TSA agent, I truthfully said “I misplaced it.” The first agent I spoke to (Steve) referred me to the neighboring TSA agent after learning I did not have my ID “because he has more stripes than me.” This man in turn referred me to Joe. Joe was one of the behavioral specialists. He’s probably 50 years old, over 6 feet tall, calm, white, whiskered, even-voiced and level headed. He asked some questions and gauged my response. “What else do you have?” I showed my credit cards, blood card, etc. “Do you remember the last place you put it?” It didn’t appear on the surface that he was paying close attention to my responses but he definitely was. I said “I remember I was at the bar on Sunday for the game and I had it there.” “Which game?” “Eurocup.” He asked another prodding question about if I had any idea, I shook my head. He marked my boarding pass SSSS (selected secondary screening something) and said I would be searched at the next step.

I give the TSA credit for using a human. They didn’t do a machine search on my name, a behavioral specialist human being prompted me with questions and carefully analyzed my responses, looking for inconsistencies and trouble. I give Joe credit personally for coming to the correct conclusion, whether out of ignorance or out of extreme expertise: I am not a threat to anybody flying. He may have thought my situation completely benign, or he may have perceived political activism. But either way he didn’t make a judgment requiring more of a hassle. Except for the secondary screening, but that’s how it worked before the TSA secret law changed.

Secondary screening was the same as always: courteous staff, pat down, quick check in the bag, no problems, sent me on my way.

It was busy July 3 so perhaps the pressure of higher volume helped me, perhaps not. Don’t get me wrong when I speak highly of individual TSA agents. The courtesy of TSA agents does not make up for the unconstitutional, immoral, authoritarian role they fill. However, I recognize that my behavior at the airport is not going to correct the leviathan we have in Washington and these individuals are just doing their jobs.

On the whole, the situation was not a great deal different from before the change in secret law. Then again, the situation rarely changes overnight. The Department of Homeland Security role in our lives will be ever increasing unless we resist it via our legislators. If you have a legislator who has voted in favor of the police state, vote for a candidate who won’t do the same thing.

Admiral Mullen says it would be stressful to go to Iran. Maybe unpredictable what would happen.

It has been clear for some time that Adm Mullen does not want to attack Iran, but his latest remarks suggest that he is fighting hard behind the scenes for both the US and Israel to think carefully about the consequences of an attack before considering mounting it.

Go ahead and blame Bush for keeping us in Iraq, but Congress is responsible for major war decisions. Congress could have passed legislation to end the war yesterday. Congress could pass legislation that would prevent war with Iran today. Congress could end the deficit spending tomorrow. All these are in the hands of Congress, but instead they are subservient to the president. Read the Constitution and see what the actual powers are for each branch. Think back to your civics class. Neither Obama nor McCain will change a blessed thing when it comes to our perverted Congress, nor are they given that power in the Constitution. It is up to the people to get rid of our Congresspersons this coming election.

I missed this story last week. Papers, Please! reports you can no longer fly without ID. The TSA Press Relase confirms it.

This new procedure will not affect passengers that may have misplaced, lost or otherwise do not have ID but are cooperative with officers. Cooperative passengers without ID may be subjected to additional screening protocols, including enhanced physical screening, enhanced carry-on and/or checked baggage screening, interviews with behavior detection or law enforcement officers and other measures.

So I need to “misplace” my ID before getting to the airport and be “cooperative” with officers. I’m not sure what “other measures” means, but according to the reports at Papers, Please! you can be asked your political affiliation. I wonder what happens if you do not respond to the political party question. Is that considered “not cooperative”?

The bullion value calculator I created using Google App Engine now allows you to login with your Google Account. If you sign in and enter some values, it will store them. The next time you visit, the values you entered will be populated. If you enter new values, those will be the ones stored and populated on your next visit. Check it out. Here’s the source if you want to look at it. It takes advantage of the following api functionality: memcache (to avoid hammering kitco), users, and datastore.

I just saw a story at the Washington Post announcing Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s plans for the demise of financial institutions. He thinks that because government is the expected answer to problems, we ought to give people more intervention. Because it’s a lack of intervention that causes problems or something.

Let’s see what he has to say.

“We should quickly consider how to appropriately give the Fed the authority to access necessary information from highly complex financial institutions and the responsibility to intervene in order to protect the system,” Paulson plans to say, “so they can carry out the role our nation has come to expect.”

One piece of crap at a time here. “QUICKLY.” Because this is so important we should make sure that we don’t even think very hard about it or have any meaningful debate. “GIVE THE FED THE AUTHORITY.” Because the Fed has solved every problem in the past and never caused any problems. “TO ACCESS NECESSARY [sic] INFORMATION.” Because people shouldn’t be allowed to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects. “TO INTERVENE.” Because all powers are inherently vested in the central government. “THE ROLE OUR NATION HAS COME TO EXPECT.” Because our nation has come to expect aggressive wars, indefinite budget deficits, encroachments on liberty, debasement of currency, a kingly presidency, and detainments without charge.

I think Paulson actually touches on a good point here. If we expect fascism we will get it folks.

This is a story from Monday actually, but I didn’t read the article until today. The Oklahoma House of Representatives sent a message to Washington. The Senate has yet to pass the bill, but it sure would be nice if states asserted their sovereignty like this:

“The State of Oklahoma hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.”

Listen to the optimists arguments and listen to Schiff’s arguments. This is a good battle from July of last year about the state of the economy and what is going to happen.