3x09_3x10

Six bed, four.5 bath, one billion gallon fish tank

There is obviously bigger news today but I have been wanting to post this article for a few days now.

"For the US, the financial stakes are huge. With its wide continental margins, it stands to gain economic control over additional territory larger than the 48 states combined, with an estimated value of $1.3 trillion in minerals, oil, and fish."

Could you imagine national flags alongside major oil and mining company flags on the bottom of the seafloor? Deep sea exploration just got a huge infusion of funds and entrepreneurs. Cheers, -Ali

Iran attack lunacy

I have long held that attacking Iran is impossibility. I expect specific tactical actions by Israeli Special Forces with the discreet assistance of the US. I don’t expect any further escalation as the economics of such action would be disastrous for too many world powers. Not to mention the logistics of any Iran invasion are currently unimaginable and no military commander, no matter how dedicated or blinded, would actually attempt such a thing. They’d tell President Bush to pound sand (no pun intended) and they’d take the next C-17 to a non-extradition country.

Unfortunately I may be wrong and reading opposite perspectives is sobering. -Ali

Treating the (Federal) patient

I don’t seriously think suing an entire congress will actually happen but I think it’s within the realm of possibility to get the collective pot of them into rehab. How do we start? Term limits! Once politics stops being a lifetime membership in the upper stratospheres of society we might actually get honest actual real life human beings in office.

And don’t give me the silly arguments about experienced legislators, that same argument doesn’t fly with the Presidency and shouldn’t for Congress. If the districts and States being represented are so worried about inexperience they can make sure they keep offices staffed properly.

How to reign in the Judiciary? And the solution would have to be different at a Federal versus State level. Can you impeach members of the Supreme Court?

What I find most remarkable about current debates on the power of the people, Congress, Presidency, Judiciary, etc. is that they bear a remarkable resemblance to the Federalist and Anti-federalist Papers. Hundreds of years have passed and we’re still trying to understand the brilliance of the Founding Fathers!

Now I’m distracted and not quite sure how to bring these two posts to a proper close. I’ll sleep on it and get back to you. –Ali

Dereliction of Duty

I was having a conversation with Jane Blue yesterday morning about the current state of US Government. In particular the idea of honest politicians who speak their mind and take responsibility for their duties and actions. Obviously we didn’t have any real life examples to base our discussion on. One subtopic of interest was the general lack of responsibility in the Legislative and Judicial branches of Government. Why is it that the Legislators can toss their Constitutional responsibilities away to the Executive? And the Judicial branch can effectively Legislate?

The House and Senate happily confuse issues with garbage like USA PATRIOT and place any blame at the feet of the President. So why is it any surprise we continuously have debates on the limits of Presidential power? I’m under no delusion; President Bush still holds ultimate responsibility for foreign relations and the debacles overseas. Yet at what point can we also hold the whole of Congress and the Judiciary responsible for gross negligence? If you or I wrongfully delegated our legal responsibilities to a third-party who turned out to be incompetent we’d certainly be held responsible. And if assigned auditors failed to do impartial and complete audits they'd be fired along with us. So why should Washington, DC be any different?

“It is truly disturbing to see many who abdicated their congressional responsibility to declare or reject war, who timidly voted to give the president the power he wanted, now posturing as his harshest critics.”

So what about a class action lawsuit against the 107th Congress? Under their watch we got USA PATRIOT and the Iraq War Resolution…

TO BE CONTINUED

A mole of marijuana

Reason magazine has an excellent article on surveillance technology and privacy that I suggest all world citizens read. It also has some interesting digital forensics comments. And you can add another technology example to the stack with the deployment of infrared-enabled peeping choppers.

It never ceases to amaze how many people use the ‘nothing to hide’ argument. If we’ve learned nothing else about Government you never know what ‘threats’ our leadership will define and pursue next. Your innocent and perfectly reasonable behavior today may become suspect tomorrow. And who controls access to the data and how long is it until insurers, employers, and marketers start using the same arguments to further their own invasive agendas? I can’t even control my raging thoughts long enough for a coherent paragraph on the topic.

I really need to start paying closer attention to privacy policies and write my own too. -Ali