FISA Amendments Act be Damned!!

The fourth amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America reads as follows:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Now, good reader, if you please, follow this link and in that excellent article read the details of the FISA Amendments Act. I knew about the telecom facet of the legislation but had no idea as to the potentially radical changes in privacy law that the Act otherwise contains.

This right to privacy, so well stated in our Bill of Rights, is under direct attack by the Bush administration. I find this exceptionally strange, even hypocritical, as the Bush administration suffers few, if any, breaches of its privacy though its business is purportedly that of the people it governs.

The NeoCons like to play the fear card, conjuring up images of Bin Laden and black hooded terrorists in an attempt to justify their power grabs. They cry," We cannot let them win." Well, the terrorists will most certainly win if the Land of the Free becomes the Land of the Gilded Cages.

A law abiding citizen of the USA should not have to suffer unwarranted searches at any time. The original FISA bill allowed for unwarranted searches in extraordinary circumstances but even then the searching organization had three days to get a FISA judge to approve the search.

But this was not enough. An administration that demands accountability in our schools through such short sighted and impractical legislation as No Child Left Behind wishes to go even farther than the original FISA in an attempt to avoid being held accountable itself.

The FISA Amendmenta Act is wrong, it is unAmerican, it is unConstitutional, and I shall attempt to prevent its passage by every legal means at my disposal.

Of Sushi and Cold Wet Fish

Ah Sushi, one of my favorite foods and here a metaphor for things liked ...

I spent a few hours Saturday down at NCDP hq in Raleigh attending the Fall Teen Dem rally. One of the local teen dems wanted to go so we went. Speakers at the event included Jerry Meek, Larry Kissell, Ed Ridpath, Tricia Cotham and Pat Smathers. The assembled teens also heard from Melissa Price, YDNC VP, and a representative from the Hampton Dellinger campaign. The really cool thing was the fact that dozens of teen democrats from various counties gathered and were enthusiastic about making a change in their communities and participating in the democratic process. They had a breakout session in which they shared ideas for increasing their local club's membership, events to sponsor and which candidates they would like to support.
I would like to comment on state Rep. Cotham's remarks, which were very interesting. Apparently the good ole boys haven't taken too well to having a single, young, female collegue. She reported that snide, sexist and even demeaning comments are made to her with some frequency. So rather than a group of "grandfatherly" elders, some of the older males in our esteemed General Assembly act more like adolescent jerks when out of the spotlight. Rep. Cotham also took some heat for sponsoring anti- bullying legislation that included clauses pertaining to sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation. Some republican GA members thought that it should be open season on gay students as they roam the halls of our schools.

I had good time, got to chat with some of the aforementioned political types and had my hope in the future somewhat restored. Varied and very satisfying, just like a good sushi dinner.


But then there is the Cold Wet Fish of Reality ... which will be things not liked, perhaps by you, the reader.

To be blunt, Jim Neal will not play well in Person Co. or in most rural/suburban counties of NC. I am sure you can surmise the reasons - Chapel Hill liberal, gay, Larry Craig guilt by association, Clinton at the top of the ticket (hey, that is the way it looks now) and Mr. Neal's association with "losers" Kerry and Bowles. Some of these "negatives" (notice quotes) can be overcome if Mr. Neal will make a point of visiting (nearly) every county twice, once in early 2008 and once later in 2008 to become 3-D, to show that he is a caring family man, intelligent with good positions on the issues facing society today. The best way to do that is meeting people face to face and creating positive word of mouth. Bowles was just a face on tv to most North Carolinians who live away from the interstate corridors, and he did not fare well as a result. Mr. Neal must create his own labels, his own political identity, before it is done for him by the attack dogs gathering on the right. I noticed that one of the major political prognosticating websites (Cooks?) just yesterday moved NC to solid rep from leans rep.

Please notice that this is not meant as an attack on Mr. Neal, but is simply a dose of reality. The attacks are coming, the better to prepare strategies in advance to cope with and deflect those attacks so as to lessen the damage and possibly gain some advantage.

Thanks for reading.

Beautiful Minds Needed to Reach Across the Divide

Perhaps you were a fan of the movie A Beautiful Mind which was a biographical look at the troubled life of mathematician John Nash. You might be a mathematician yourself, versed in the details of gaming theory, or you might well be sick and tired of so little getting accomplished by the political leaders of this country as they spend more time looking to beat 'the other guys' than they do practicing thoughtful governance.
My guess is that most of you fall into the third catagory. If so, or out of general curiousity, please continue reading below the fold to see what may be done, both theoretically and practically, to get our leaders to lead and so lend hope to our now uncertain future.

Adam Smith posited that self-interest promotes the most efficient use of resources and so results in the best outcome for the wellbeing of the public. John Nash turned that around by suggesting that even in a noncooperative setting (like politics) the best results are attained by acting not with self-interest, but with consideration for the desires and actions of all the players on the field. If I recall correctly, Newt Gingrich accelerated the partisanship in Congress because of two critical chancges he made in the way the House does business. Prior to Gingrich becoming Speaker, all freshmen Reps went through orientation together, getting to know one another, enduring similar hardships and experiences, creating friendships that might last for years. Gingrich had each party run its own orientation, so that there was no chance for cross-party relationships to develop from the start of a congressman's term; the other guys were the enemy right from the start. Gingrich also discouraged congressmen from staying in DC while the House was not in session. This has had the effect of preventing socialization between members of the House and further perpetuating the "Us/Them" mentality. Democrats and Republicans have been fighting for advantage with more vigor, expending ever more energy and resources (increasing cost and decreasing utility) to win. Win what you say, doesn't really matter, just so long as we win. Oh, and before you say it's just the other guys who go out of their way to win, I will remind you of the heavy handedness of the DCCC in 2006.
Hubert Humphrey and Barry Goldwater would go at it on the Senate floor hammer and tongs with rhetorical sparks just a flying, but when off the floor of the Senate they were good friends. So what gets the most reward, or utility, for the most people? Two sides hammering each other with gerrymandered districts, strident labeling, expending resources that could be better spent all which reflect the pure self-interest reflected in the Adam Smith paradigm. In the movie, A Beautiful Mind, Nash's epiphany comes while in a bar when he realizes that his male friends will have a better chance of scoring with a woman if they pursue the less attractive women rather than all competing for the same blonde bombshell. If they do compete for the blonde they will block each other, waste resources and, at best, only one of them will gain any "utility" out of the situation. If they work with each other's goals in mind they will have a greater chance of success.
We need Beautiful Minds, people who will communicate with each other, who will have a rational conversation to learn the motives and desires of the other side so as not to block each other in a way that justs wastes resources. So will you do this? Will you have patient chats with coworkers and neighbors? Will you reach out to the right wing bloggers with class, adding comments and posts that might let them better understand your thinking, motives and desires? Here are some websites you might try this notion out on - Rightmarch.com, Townhall.com, Patriotpost, and the Heritage Foundation.
Also, at every opportunity, please encourage your elected officials to engage each other civily and so work for the best outcomes for their constituents. John Nash is certainly a mathematical genius, but his greatest contribution just might be in providing our crowded society with a model of living that let's us be individuals, with individual goals and aspirations, but working in such a way as to provide the best outcome for all of us who must share life on planet Earth.