A couple of quotes from an interview with Rick Santorum caught my attention today:

"Santorum said he held up the confirmation of Lynette Norton, who also was nominated for a seat on that court, because Clinton White House officials did not follow through on their standing agreement with him and Specter that for every three Democrats, the senators would get to choose a Republican"

So under Clinton the GOP basically blackmailed the President so they wouldn't block ALL of his nominees - and still blocked over 60 of his nominees. Or can someone point out to me where in the Constituion it says the Senate gets to appoint judges as well as advise and consent?

"In February of 2000, Santorum did stop a Clinton appeals court nominee -- then-U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Cindrich, whom Clinton had named to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Santorum said last week that Cindrich's appointment simply came too late in Clinton's term."

So aparently in the GOP version of the constitution the President gets to appoint 75% of the judges, and only for 75% of their term of office. By my calculation, Bush still owes the Dems about 70 judges of their choice (to equal about a third of the 200 or so he got approved in his first term) before they have to cooperate at all on judicial nominations.

Using the term "The Last" * is quite popular in film titles. In fact there are 1,245 ** such titles or sub-titles on IMDB. But surprisingly there are ZERO using the word Penultimate in the title or sub-title. (OK, so there is one with Penúltima in the title "A Penúltima Donzela [The Last Maiden But One]" but there was no "A Ultima Donzela [The Last Maiden]" made related to it.)

Of the 1,245, which do you think would lend itself best to making a prequal titled (or sub-titled) "The Penultimate ..." and if possible provide a brief synopsis of the prequal.

Here's mine:

The Penultimate Temptation of Christ: Jesus and the Apostles have just arrived for the Last Supper. But the venue is run by Romans who seat the group in the Roman section instead of the Jewish section of the restaurant (they had Jim Crow back then - but they called it Chaim Cohn). The waitress brings over the menu and says tonight's special is Ham and Cheese on Rye (triply un-kosher during Passover) and Jesus ponders to himself "hmm, I'm gonna die any day now, maybe just this once..." He goes ahead and orders much to the consternation of the Disciples and we get about an hour of My Dinner with Andre / Sideways-style conversation until finally he is dissauded not to eat the Ham and Cheese on Rye.

* Oddly when you search on "Last" the 2002 movie The Last doesn't come up in the results.
** Unlike the above footnote, the 1,245 does include a couple of titles where "The" doesn't appear before the "Last" - so there are actually fewer than 1,245.

Vice President Dick Cheney, saying he had not seen DeLay's remarks, distanced himself from the call for retribution against the courts. "I don't think that's appropriate," Cheney said in an interview with the New York Post. Houston Chronical link (emphasis added)

Uh, Dick? If you have to think about it means you think there are some decisions for which retribution might be appropriate. Needing to think about it is saying that reasonable people might disagree or come to a different conclusion.

Retribution against the judiciary is NEVER acceptable, that is why Federal Judges and Justices have lifetime appointments because the founding fathers wanted to ensure there was no room for retribution - even from the electorate or the politicians that appointed or confirmed them.

Dick, please clarify your remarks or resign if you feel you can no longer keep your oath to uphold the Constitution - or if you think some potential future circumstances may lead you fail to keep that oath.

Round Rock, TX School Board VP arrested for allegedly offers to trade Legal services for Sexual services.

And remember, John Ashcroft spent the summer of 2001 not preventing Osama bin Laden from attempting to attack the US, but in going after an interstate prostitution ring.

FYI - there is a now a Bobo's World blog!

I'm wary of raising the cap since it seems targetted at hitting the upper middle class without any real impact on the truly wealthy. But Removing the cap entirely doesn't seem like a bad idea. Also, if the GOP will only do this as part of setting up personal/private/pirate accounts, then I propose only additional revenues in the bill be available to fund the accounts and that other payroll- like payments from employers to employees be subject to a FICA- like tax to pay for them. This would include mostly items that only get paid to wealthier taxpayers in the first place, in particular I would include any employer match contributed to 401k plans, stock options, stock grants, golden parachute payments to departing executives, training paid by an employer - or by any customer/client of the employer (such as junkets to pharmaceutical conventions paid for by Pharma Corps on behalf of doctors), the value of company provided cars or housing, etc. I would make only the employer liable for their share of the tax on these items and not directly increase the tax paid by the employees as it seem inherently unfair to demand the employee forfeit cash for a non-cash benefit they are receiving. (the current Alternative Minimum Tax ruls mays provide a good listing of these kinds of items).

While these new taxes would fall most on (the employers of) better off Americans, I would make the new private accounts highly targeted at less off workers, those making the median wage or less, and who are not getting any (or any significant) match on their retirement savings from their employers. The program would provide a 1-for-1 match up to 5% of salary in the form of a refundable tax credit. For workers at the very bottom who have nothing available to save - the first $500 would be kicked in regardless of whether they matched it or not.

NOTE: I'm still fleshing this out - I'll try to add more detail as I get time

we'll have to see - the last journal I saw posted was 99,998

I'll delete this if it isn't it.

UPDATE: as he gloats below, insanecarbonbasedlif got it - I posted this one - saw it was 99,999 and tried to quickly get another one up - but the new one came up as 100,001.

We got a sitter Monday for late afternoon / early evening (I had it off for the US holiday) and actually went on a date. Dinner was a Pakistani place we try to get to once a year or so, I had a tomatoey/spicy goat dish, and Cy Gal had the mixed kabob platter. For dessert we stopped at Starbucks to split a Chantico. It was divine, so I have been looking around the net for a recipe - this one just happened to come up on LinkFilter today so I thought I'd shamelessly 'borrow' it and repost it here.

Ingredients
1 can evaporated milk (12 oz or 350ml)
3 heaping tbs cocoa (I used Penzey's)
1/4 cup golden syrup (you could use light corn syrup)
3 oz or 100 gms Ghiradelli semisweet baking chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup or 60 ml heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
(optionally you can add additional flavorings such as cinnamon, mint, ginger, coffee, etc.)

Directions
Place everything except the heavy cream together in a small saucepan, stirring occasionally, over medium low heat until the chocolate melts and the liquid is heated through. (Don't let it boil.) Add the heavy cream and heat another minute or so. Pour into individual small cups. Makes approximately 4 five ounce servings.

I haven't tried it yet - maybe this weekend after the kids are in bed? I'll probably adapt it by using some vanilla Italian Soda syrup in place of the golden syrup and vanilla extract.

A much simpler and less appealing version suggested on a Starbucks blog (largely populated by baristas) said to just mix Nestle's Milo with Ovaltine. I guess it might be better than normal hot cocoa - especialy if you fortify with condensed milk, but I can't imagine it being on par with a Chantico, little less the Eurpoean "drinking chocolate" Chantico aspires to be.

I'm not a hockey fan* - but I hate when the monied and powerful piss on the poor masses, and love it when the masses take the initiative to fight back. So when I heard about this effort the other day on NPR, I thought, now that is cause I can get behind.

Three loyal canucks who know their hockey history have taken it upon themselves to restore the honor of the Stanley Cup by promoting a plan to take it away from an organization that has shown it is unworthy. With the collapse of any hope of an NHL season this year, to fulfill the bequest of Lord Stanley, it seems this is the quite proper.

More backgound on the story is available here, and this is the NPR story I heard that originally alerted me to the effort.

  * or perhaps, more accurately I'm not an NHL fan - I loved the game when I played on the community rink down the street when I was 8, and enjoy Olympic hockey - I just don't think hockey and violence have to be synonymous

I'm really confused by the article in today's Washington Post which Describes A Bush Social Security Plan RADICALLY Different Than What I Thought The Plan Was.

From my understanding of the article, you don't actually get to take money out of Social Security - in effect you will be getting more like a share of the Social Security trust fund (SSTF) for which you can decide how it will be invested (within tightly controlled limits). Then when you retire, you don't get to keep the pinciple you put in, OR most of the earnings. Instead you would only get the earnings that EXCEED a 3% after inflation return, on 'your' account.

If that is how it really works, then I can see myself actually liking the plan. I think there is way to much propaganda implying ppl get to keep the money being withheld - as that appears to be outright false, but I favor a system where the public and the market can help increase the returns on Social Security. Less radical approaches for this would be investing a chunk of the SSTF in higher returned but still Federally-backed investments, like Federal student loans, VA and HUD backed mortgages, and maybe some more radical ideas like drilling, mining, timber and grazing rights on federal lands (this last option might actually convince the government to stop using these as subsidies to extractive industries and instead leverage some of the country's most valuable assetts toward the commmon welfare of its people).

MINOR UPDATE 3:30 PM
For the truly Wonky, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has much more detailed information on Senator Graham's plan, which appears to be the basis of the plan the WaPo article analyzes. I think I will have to wait to read it until I need something to read to put me to sleep tonight.

MINOR UPDATE 5:30 PM 2/4/05:
Another useful link: Whitehouse background briefing from 2/2/05. Makes it clearer how the clawback provision works, you'd only have to put an amount into the annuity at retirement that would be sufficient to provide a poverty level of income. Anything exceeding that you could treat as your own money. If your traditional Social Security benefit (now reduced by the accumulated diverted amount plus 3% real interest) exceeds the poverty level then you could in theory do what you want with the entirety of your private account.

I was listening to a radio program on the NPR affiliate here in DC. At night they carry some EU programming and during a Deutche-Welle (sp) broadcast talking about a sharks I was inspired to create a new word. So new, in fact, that Googling for it (for the two logical spellings I could come up with anyway) resulted in zero hits. Here it is:

Sharkenfreude© - the unusual pleasure in seeing (or hearing about) someone else being eaten or mauled by a shark
© 2005 Cy Guy Enterprises

Anyone else have any?

From the Drinking Liberally DC Mailing list:

We hope to see everyone at the next DL happy hour Thursday at RFD, located at 810 7th Street, NW. Thanks to D-Lib Kim, Washington Post columnist Dan Froomkin is confirmed to speak this Thursday night! Mr. Froomkin is the author of the Washingtonpost.com's White House Briefing column weekday mornings. If you have additional suggestions for a speaker please ... post it on the Washington DC DL Forum.

You can get to RFD from the Gallery. Place/Chinatown stop (green, yellow and red lines) or the Metro Center stop (orange, blue and red lines). 810 7th Street, NW, is just a short walk away, near Fado's. We hope you can join us Thursday 6PM at RFD! Please invite friends, colleagues and co-workers. Friends can sign up to the DC mailing list by visiting the Drinking Liberally DC website. We thank you for your support! Please try to come so we can ensure a great turn-out for our guest speaker Dan Froomkin. See you Thursday at 6PM!

I expect to be there by 6. The one other time I've been, I was told by the RFD hostess to meet them in front of the three TV's at the bar, but I'm still not sure that was the right place as only one other person met me there. I'm assuming that with a speaker it will be easier to find, but note that the place is pretty packed at 6PM.

Froomkin is usually pretty good about addressing hard-hitting questions in his column when they posed to him during his semi-regular onine chats, and he keeps pretty close tabs on the blogosphere. I'm a regular reader of his column and looking forward to meeting him. If you're not a liberal, I'm sure you;ll be welcome, but with a guest speaker, I'm not sure they want to get into any serious flamewars this week. Save any really heated discussions for one the regular weekly happy hours, or for SlashDot or Plastic.com MeetUp.

UPDATE 5:30 PM 1/13 OK, I'm on my way.

It's being reported that Bush has picked Appeals Court Judge Michael Chertoff to head the Department of Homeland Security.

Previously Chertoff directed the failed prosecution of Zacarias Massoui, and aided the failed investigation of the White Water scandal.

UPDATE: 2:22 PM

Well the blogosphere has had a chance to look into Chertoff's past and found this interesting piece of info. It seems that in between his role as Senate GOP attorney for the WhiteWater scandal, and being appointed AAG for the Criminal Division, he took on some private clients - including one Arab-Americans who he defnded in a fraud case that later was caught trying to buy weapons and funneling $M's to Osama bin Laden, interestingly, none of his former clients were included in the round-up of hundreds of Middle Eastern men following 9/11 - all of who were later released for lack of any involvement with 9/11 or bin Laden. And due to roadblacks faced by the investigation of the weapons deal, the former client and his associates have never been brought to trial and remain free.

You'd think someone at FEMA would have Googled their own website fairly soon after the disaster and removed this.

x\\ spell your name backwards: yuG yC
x\\ have you ever had a song written about you: Well, at least a verse that included me - but the songwriter was my 3 yr old daughter
x\\ height: 188 cm
x\\ hair color: dishwater blonde
x\\ piercings: one closed one in left ear

r i g h t _ n o w . . .
x\\ what taste is in your mouth?: Spinach Nuggets
x\\ whats the weather like?: blah. 50's
x\\ how are you?: eh - blah. 40's
x\\ get motion sickness?: No
x\\ have a bad habit?: yes - the Internet
x\\ get along with your parents?: Yes
x\\ boyfriend/girlfriend: My wife won't let me
x\\ have a current crush: no
x\\ have a big regret: Not taking a great job oportunity I had leaving College

f a v o u r i t e . . .
x\\ tv show: Desperate Housewives
x\\ conditioner: Air
x\\ non alchohol drink: ginger beer
x\\ alchohol drink: Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA
x\\ things to do on the weekend: fly a kite in the park

h a v e _ you _ e v e r . . .
x\\ ever gone skinny dipping: Yes
x\\ made a prank phone call: Probably, I forget
x\\ tipped over a port-a-potty: No
x\\ had a boyfriend/girlfriend: yes
x\\ had children: Two
x\\ been in love: Twice
x\\ have a hard time getting over someone: No
x\\ gone out with someone you only knew for 3 days: Yes

r a n d o m . . .
x\\ have a job: For the time being

w h e n _ was _ t h e _ last _ t i m e . . .
x\\ got an email: 10:34 AM
x\\ thing you purchased: beer

w h a t _ comes _ t o _ mind . . .
x\\ car: go
x\\ murder: game
x\\ cape: fear
x\\ penis: mine
x\\ cell: prison
x\\ shoe: horn
x\\ fun: filled
x\\ crush: Orange
x\\ music: sound
x\\ chalk: one up

n u m b e r . . . :
x\\ of girls you have kissed: ten, twenty, what do you consider a kiss?
x\\ of boys you have kissed: 3? on the cheek - like in France

d o _ you _ t h i n k _ you _ a r e . . . :
x\\ pretty: too much so for a boy
x\\ funny: in a quirky sorta way
x\\ hot: too skinny - but I've got a nice butt
x\\ friendly: not unfriendly

f a v o u r i t e . . . :
x\\ flower: Bird of Paradise
x\\ summer/winter: Summer

h a v e _ you _ e v e r

x\\ said i love you and meant it: Yes
x\\ kept a secret from everyone: Yes
x\\ been to new york: Yes
x\\ to california: Yes, but only to LAX to change planes

w h e n _ was :

x\\ last book read: Anonymous Rex
x\\ last beverage drank: coffee
x\\ last food consumed: Chicken Noodle Soup
x\\ last phone call: just now, from the wife about dinner plans
x\\ showered: 7:30 AM
x\\ last shoes worn: brown suede wingtips for work
x\\ last cd played: John Flynn Crayons
x\\ last thing written: this journal entry
x\\ last word spoken: 'kay' - to wife on phone
x\\ last sleep: last night
x\\ last im: never
x\\ sexual fantasy: FFM
x\\ last ice cream eaten: Low Fat Ice Klondike Ice Cream Sandwich
x\\ last time wanting to die: A week ago, during a rough morning at work

Just a quick note to ask for some moral support for a friend.

A friend from Plastic.com just became a new dad - but the baby was born premature at only 27 weeks gestation. He says both mom and baby are doing about as well as can be hoped for at this point (the mom was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia - which led them to to deliver so early to protect her health). 27-28 weeks seems to be right on the bubble given current technology. There is a good survivability rate (Googling seems to indicate 87% at 27 weeks) - but there is also a real concern for potentially lifelong complications. I'm hoping that given both parents' small stature that perhaps this baby is little further along than they thought.

Anyway - any extra karma/love/thoughts/prayers you can send their way would be much appreciated. I'll try to keep you apprised.

Thanks

UPDATE 10:28 PM - 12/4/04

The mom is back home now, the baby is coming along though I guess there were a couple of scary days early on. They gave her surfactants to help her lungs, and they have her under full spectrum lights to keep her bilirubin levels in check. These are pretty standard treatments for a kid born this early. She is also on a ventilator but isn't currently needing extra oxygen - so I think that means her lungs are starting to mature well.

Check the link above for any additional news, and keep the karma/prayers/good thought/crossed fingers, coming.

Cy
(oh, and btw - it's my birthday - it has been a pretty good one.)