Friday, March 15, 2002

 
Oh boy...this could be a while

Social Justice Center has a links page that got me to this.

"An index to about 1000 organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area that may be of interest to progressive activists..."

*sigh* Sisyphus comes to mind...

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 11:43 PM

 
Marin WTF Alert

So, I was trying to find out info about when the meeting about the "Justice Boards" was going to take place, when I can across the Social Justice Center of Marin.

Tomorrow moring at 10:00 they will be having a little get-together to "make signs in support of human rights and against U.S. monetary and military support for Israel.", and they'll be metting "at the Manzanita Parking Lot at Highway 101 exit to Mill Valley."

I think I'll try to head out and see if the work will actually take place in the parking lot...at which point, I'll try to take notes like Jane Goodall. This is the scary element up here that I would like to expose for all to see, the pols will wait.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 11:24 PM

 
Feinstein in the news

More fun from Feinstein in the battle between open technology and closed off intellectual property law.

With $446,168 coming from Lawyers/Law Firms(1) and $214,638 coming from TV/Movies/Music (4) versus $103,016 from Computer Equipment & Services, one can easily predict where Sen. Feinstein will side on issues such as these.

But this issue really isn't the big deal that the Media industries are making it out to be. DVD's are so cheap these days, that most people I know buy them rather than rent them...and the ammount of time it would take to D/L a movie versus just buying it (and a better quiality version to boot) just doesn't add up.

Sure, people may download early pirated versions to see movies before they hit the theater, but that's either for crap movies that people won't see anyway, or maybe they'll like the little taster enough that they will go see it in the nice big theater with the big screen and killer sound system.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 4:20 PM

 
May you live in interesting times

Boy, just when you thought things were quiet.

This should make for some interesting maneuver's over the next year or two...I can't wait to watch it all shake out

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 10:29 AM

Thursday, March 14, 2002

 
Mo' Money! Mo' Money! Mo' Money!

Well, it had to happen. The tax on junk food may or not be present, but dig this opening paragraph:

If California is serious about improving academic performance, it will have to look beyond textbooks and examine such things as children's eyesight and a possible tax on junk food to pay for dental care, a report being released today said.

Because nobody never learnt nothin from buks anyway. This is an interesting train of thought...we need to check eyesight (which was already done to me back in High School, I hadn't realized they dropped it. And of course, we'll also need a new tax. If you don't agree with these things, then you are obviously against education you heartless bastard! Remember, this is for the children!

Assemblywoman Wilma Chan, D-Oakland, will introduce a package of bills intended to start the state on the road toward better children's health.

Bless her heart...

Chan said the high rate of absenteeism -- the report estimates that about 10 percent of children miss more than 18 school days a year -- is one symptom of the underlying problem.

One "symptom" of an "underlying" problem? How many of those ESTIMATED 10 percent are suffering from non-dental related illnesses? What method did they use to ESTIMATE that figure? Alas, the article fails to inform...it's obviosly not pertinent...just stick to the quotes from that nice Assemblywoman.

"If we could get kids to be there when they are supposed to be, they'd be doing a lot better," she said.

Bless her heart...

Republican Assemblyman John Campbell of Irvine said the state should wait until the budget situation has improved before making such sweeping proposals.

"It is irresponsible to be throwing this kind of thing out in this environment," he said.

Booo...Hisssss....mean Republican from Orange County...don't you know this is for the children?

One way to finance these projects is to generate revenue. Chan said she will propose a study to determine whether a tax should be put on junk food to pay for children's dental health.

Bless her heart...

Anyway, this artile, bill, and idea will probably gain a lot of traction up here. Why? Well...because not too many around here actually eat "junk food" (it's never really mentioned what exactly that is), so not too many people around here will actually have to pay for it. This is more social engineering, placing taxes on "bad" actions to pay for "good" causes.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 8:44 PM

 
Justice Boards

Along the lines of this piece and this followup over at Samizdata comes this peice from the MarinIJ.

This could be a very interesting thing...not only does it take some weight of the court system, it also puts the concept of justice back into the community, but should also be able to throttle the 'mob mentality' down and keep things civil.

There are still some questions, like how is the board selected, what scope of punishment is available, and is due process or an appeleat route still available if the verdict is extreme or seems based more on a past grudge from a neighbor.

I'll plan on being at the meeting this Saturday to see what all the gory details are...

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 5:30 PM

Wednesday, March 13, 2002

 
Oh My! *blush*

Well, it seems that Gov Davis is already feeling a little hot, with eight months left til the primary. Scroll way down on this link and you'll this tasty exchange:

The best part, however, came when someone brought up the charge that he had panicked and signed those long-term electricity contracts at a very high price.

"If I didn't panic, you wouldn't be able to put out your paper," the governor shot back. "I saved this friggin' paper. I kept the lights on. Do you understand that? I kept the lights on."

And as for those "experts" who say he shouldn't have signed the contracts?

"They don't know squat."

I remember back in High School really hoping politicians would just break down, tell it like it is, and even pepper with a few colorful euphemisms. That day seems to be coming rapidly...but I'm not sure how I feel about it.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 5:44 PM

 
And Feinstein

The is Sen. Feinstein's comment regard the Florida Flight School getting Visa's for Atta et al in the mail on Monday:

"The fact that the Immigration and Naturalization Service sent out two letters regarding the student visas of two known terrorist hijackers -- a full six months after the terrible events of September 11th -- is outrageous. My fear is that it is still business as usual at INS, even in the aftermath of the most devastating terror attack on American soil.

This clearly demonstrates the immediate need for improvements in the data systems and visa operations at the INS through the Senate's swift enactment of the visa reform legislation that I have introduced with Senator Kennedy."

I'm still unable to locate the text of the Bill as of this writting, but if Sen. Kennedy is involved, I would tend to think the only operation that will be streamlined at the INS is the cafeteria operation.

It's stuff like this that drives me up the wall. Through pork programs, the people bring in the almost unhirable to perfrom low-level beauracratic operations, give them job for life status, and then sit around wringing their hands when something goes wrong proclaiming somebody must do something and that someone is me.

I think I have to second this one.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 5:07 PM

 
More Boxer

"The people of California were not laughing then, and we are not laughing now. Our state will not rest until justice is done." --Sen. Boxer speaking about Enron, not about Sept. 11

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 4:53 PM

 
Boxer waves arms in air, runs in circles

The latest offering:

"My bill includes three ‘Ts' to prevent terrorists from using false identification – technology, training, and tough sentences."

The legislation introduced by Senator Boxer would curtail the use of false identification by requiring the following:

Mandatory training for airline personnel who are responsible for checking the identification of passengers.

Placement of ID scanning technology in every airport to check the validity of IDs. This technology would also include optical or facial scanners to determine if an individual is in a terrorist database.

Mandatory prison time for anyone who produces, transfers, possesses or uses a fake ID in connection with terrorism.

Item 1: Training? "This is a picture. THis is a terrorist. This is a picture of a terrorist. Any Questions?"
Item 2: Facial Scans? Terrorist Database? Would this have done ANYTHING 6 months ago? No...not really.
Item 3: Mandetory prison tim for use of a fake ID in connection with terrorism. Are there any other laws with mandetory prison time simply for any act of terrorism? Yes. Will the prison time be sentanced posthumously for suicide attackers?

And oh yeah, the terrorists had valid, legitment identification...remember? That's how we found out about them so quickly afterwards.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 4:45 PM

 
Then there's Woolsey

So, kinda strange that there's all this government mandated development going on, while Rep. Woolsey gets her biggest contributions from construction unions. I know it's a state mandate, but it still makes you wonder.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 12:25 AM

Tuesday, March 12, 2002

 
Nation on Fish

There's this item in the MarinIJ, and the specific bill here.

This bill is one of those "So What" measures. It doesn't actually do anything except tell the FDA that "we have concerns".

The article states "Final approval is at least two years off.", while the bill states "The United States Food and Drug Administration does not have scientific expertise to adequately review the impacts on marine ecosystems that will be caused by the introduction of transgenic fish into commercial aquaculture"

Nation is basically taking the approach that we shouldn't do anything until it can be proven safe, without showing that anything is inheirantly wrong or bad about it, escentially saying you can't do this until you prove every conceivable outcome. It would be nice if life worked in this manner, but it doesn't.

Essentially, this is one of those pieces of legislation that Nation will point to in his reelection campaign to say "See? Look! I fought evil science."

It also only quotes three people, Nation himself, a PR flak from NRDC, and a VP from Aqua Bounty Farms. So that's 2-1 slant already (but no bias!). It would be nice to have a statement from a legislator who opposes the measure as well as an official FDA response.

Anyway. if Nation was serious about this bill, it would actually strictly forbid Transgenic fish within California State lines, regardless of federal regulations...or impose an addition tax on transgenic fish sold within California to make it financially impractical...neither of which option I would support, but at least he would be taking a real stand.

To reiterate:

"The females would not be able to reproduce. We will not use males because males will still try to spawn if they are sterile," says McGonigle of Aqua Bounty Farms.
"I know there are genetically altered tomatoes, but tomatoes and fish and two different things entirely," says Nation.

Yes, fish and tomatoes are different, but how does that relate to the pros/cons of transgentic species, Mr. Nation?

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 11:31 PM

 
State Rolls Over Neighborhoods

From MarinIJ comes this piece.

"Residents of San Rafael's North San Pedro Road and marina neighborhoods are charging that the city, under the gun to provide 2,000 units of affordable housing to meet a state mandate, is pressuring them to accept more development in their area than traffic can bear."

Marin residents are quite upset over state mandated development to provide affordable housing,
whether they like it or not. Of course this is more of a NIMBY situation. Marin is a leftist county...Bush carried 28% of the county, Nader almost 7%, and Browne a scant 0.41 (if you're curious, Gore took over 64%).

Our State Senator, John Burton carried over 68%. Our Assemblyman, Joe Nation, grabbed 65%.

Access to affordable housing is a hot-button issue here in the Bay Area, with strong advocacy coming from Democrats all over...especially if it's going into thier neighborhood.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 8:47 PM