Scientific American has a great podcast, especially for those of us who believe in whacky theories like evolution, climate change and gravity. Tom Friedman has some great perspectives on why dealing with climate change is a good bet, even if the theory is wrong. To the doubters, he argues that our national security depends on a renewable energy source which, whoops, is what solving the climate change issue requires too.

Listen HERE.

Takeway quote: “Change your leaders, not your lightbulbs.”

Also, the interview with Jerry Coyne on evolution and creationism is worth a listen.

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According to the principles established by the Nuremberg trials, you and I are probably in the clear with respect to charges of crimes against humanity or war crimes, but perhaps our political leaders are not. Could those principles be extended to all taxpayers who fund war criminals? It might sound obvious or absurd depending on how you view the issues, but it’s not an easy question.

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Popularity: 13% [?]

For quite some time now, I’ve had a Bush countdown clock on my website (the javascript kind, I mean, though I also have some links there for buying the physical kind). Even back when Bush’s approval ratings were way above 60%, I was (at least for a while), number one in Google for “Bush is evil” and I already had my inauguration 2009 countdown clock spinning down on every page.
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Popularity: 13% [?]

President Bush, addressing the United Nations, said that American forces and interrogators were being hampered by the vague language of the Ten Commandments and added that he did not wish US forces to be bound by them. Democratic leader Harry Reid accused the president of trying to “reinterpret” the Decalogue.
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Popularity: 36% [?]

The Bush administration responded forcefully today to critics of “aggressive interrogation”, known euphemistically as “torture lite.” Critics, including the FBI, have alleged that torture is ineffective and does not elicit quality information from suspects. The Bush administration has pointed out, however, that these techniques have been extremely effective in the past. Notably, press secretary Tony Snow said, torture saved Europe from witches in the past and can save us from terrorism today. (more…)

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During today’s press conference, Bush was asked what his biggest mistakes and regrets were with respect to Iraq. Of course, even I wouldn’t fantazise that he say “Going there in the first place” or “Lying to the United Nations” or (to be more charitable) “Not vetting our intelligence better”. I was surprised that he actually was willing to admit some errors at all since in the past he has refused to do so. This time he said he regretted saying things like “Bring it on” and “Wanted dead or alive” and he regretted what had happened at Abu Ghraib. I suppose if you were George Bush, it might be hard to come up with a short answer to the question “What are some mistakes you regret from your administration.” First off, though I don’t think the mistakes Bush mentioned even scratch the surface, but I do appreciate the fact that at least he answered the question straight up and picked some pretty serious mistakes. The things he chose to mention say something about Bush, though I’m not sure ecactly what. A few things come to mind though. First off, he sees what happened in Abu Ghraib as a mistake made by his administration. That’s not an unreasonable accusation, but it would also be reasonable for a politician to shirk responsibility for that and say that it wasn’t really an error on the part of the administration. It is also a bit different from being asked whether the administration takes responsibility for Abu Ghraib and responding in the affirmative. In this case it was picked more or less out of thin air and it does show that Bush takes responsibility for mistakes that were not directly his fault. Though it’s obvious to some of us that Abu Ghraib was indirectly Bush’s fault on so many levels, it surprised me that Bush sees it that way.

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I’ve been caught out reading conservatives again. I always think it’s noteworthy when there’s widespread agreement between the ideological left and the ideological right in criticizing a policy or a politician. Somehow I ended up at the Cato Instutite website and spied Power Surge: The Constitutional Record of George W. Bush, an anti-Bush screed by Gene Healy and Timothy Lynch, know primarily for their anti-Clinton screeds. Anyway, their white paper makes for an interesting read. Nothing new, but it is a concise analysis of Bush’s presidency ranging from signing the McCain-Feingold legislation to harrassing non-violent protesters (both action the authors see as attacks on First Ammendment rights) and contrasting this with Jefferson pardoning persons convicted by the Supreme Court under the Sedition Act, saying that in Jefferson’s opinion, the judiciary had trammeled the First Ammendment rights of the convicted. They also discuss the administration’s torture memos, expanded authority to arrest and more. The paper is littered with pearls like:

Under this sweeping theory of executive power, the liberty of
every American rests on nothing more than the grace of the White House.78

Unfortunately, far from defending the Constitution, President Bush has repeatedly sought to strip out the limits the document places on federal power.

Anyway, it’s worth a read.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Republicans are scrambling to do something about the high cost of petroleum. Let’s suggest one obvious solution: I propose that we invade Iraq, topple the dictatorship there and then use the massive oil revenues to rebuild the country and increase supply in the United States. Oh wait, George Bush already tried that. Let’s see, without reading any news on it, what might Republicans come up with based on past proposals? Could it be…. drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? Yes for 100 points to the red team!!
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Popularity: 15% [?]

I just came across this in Wired News online. An affidavit in support of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s lawsuit against At&T details the existence of a setup in the Worldnet headquarters that allows the NSA to grab data off the fiber optic lines that carry a huge percentage of the country’s internet traffic. Specifically, Mark Klein, the retired engineer who gave the affidavit says that “it appears the NSA is capable of conducting what amounts to vacuum-cleaner surveillance of all the data crossing the internet — whether that be peoples’ e-mail, web surfing or any other data.” See the full story in Wired Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room as well as a complete copy of the affidavit.

I often see the bumper sticker “Freedom isn’t free”. I guess it turns out that the price of freedom is surveillance of all your communication. Land of the wiretapped, home of the scared!

Popularity: 13% [?]

We know that He Who Shall Not Be Named will not be able to run in 2008 (there is a God!) and therefore will be kicked out in 2009. I put a countdown timer on my blog, but some people have bumper stickers, tee-shirts and even physical countdown clocks counting down to inauguration 2009 when He Who Shall Not Be Named vacates the White House. So basically, here you have:

1. Various clocks (actual anti-Bush physical desk clocks and mini keychain clocks) that people are selling that count down until He Who Shall Not Be Named is out of office. Update. I keep finding these around the net and then they go away and turn into dead links. Now I have just the one clock above (or to the left) that I’m selling myself which hopefully will stay in stock and even gives me a small commission. Basically, it tells time but instead of numbers, it has illustrations from some of Bush’s more nefarious cowboy acts, and then it has a digital countdown timer at the bottom.
2. Some inauguration 2009 bumper stickers and t-shirts from CafePress counting down until we have a new president. I’ve seen better ones, but haven’t taken the time to put them up here.
3. Installation instructions for putting an anti-Bush (oops! I named Him) Javascript countdown timer on your website.
4. Some other Bush countdown clocks I’ve found here and there around the net celebrating that same event.

Inauguration 2009 bumper stickers and shirts from CafePress

America: Returning Jan 20th 2009 Sticker (Bumper) (also in tee shirts, coffee mugs and so forth)

Someone Less Dumb in 2008 (bumper sticker. Also in tee shirt, pins, etc).

The countdown timer script

[note for geeks: if your host uses CPanel, you can also just use the countdown function on your control panel to put a Java timer (rather than Javascript) on your site).]

First off, this is 99.9% not my script. The generic script that can be used to countdown from any date is made and distributed by Robert Hashemian and was modified to object-oriented code by Munsifali Rashid. Please note, that their counter is simply a generic counter and they may be Bush supporters for all I know, but that does not seem to be the case, so I don’t think he’ll be too upset about distributing this modified version (I have contacted him to make sure it’s okay). Anyway, you don’t need to credit me in any way, but it might be nice if you use the script to give credit to Robert in some way. All I have done is:

• Throw in some php into the footer part to get the time on the server and allow the user (i.e. you, not the person looking at your page) to set the timezone offset from Washington.
• Set the default date to the 2009 Inauguration.
• Changed to format so that there are non-breaking spaces between the digits and their unit indicators so it doesn’t break “10 days” onto two lines.

If you want to see how to install multiple counters on a single page or you want to run a version that does not use PHP, go to Robert Hashemian’s countdown timer page and download Mun’s version of this script, which shows you how to do that. That way you can put a “Until the Social Security Fund runs out” counter too!

Okay, first download my modified version and unzip it.

1. Transfer the countdown.js file to your site via FTP or a file manager.
2. Grab the code in the Countdown.php file in the header and put it in the header of your page. If countdown.js is not in the same directory as the page/script that the countdown timer appears on, you have to change the path in the first <script> statement so that it points to right location.
3. Grab the code from the footer and put it in the footer of your page. Make sure that you adjust the timezone correction. If you are on the east coast, this would be 0, in the Midwest, -1
4. Now just take the one line of HTML and put it where you want the timer to appear. It is currently wrapped in <div id=”clockwrapper”>. This div is not required, but the other one is and must not be changed (neither the tag nor the id) unless you want to make the necessary changes to the countdown.js file

That’s pretty much it. At that point, it should just run.

The Bush Desktop Countdown Clock – more real physical clocks

While doing this, I saw someone trying to sell a Bush countdown timer for $20 and I thought that was an incredible ripoff, until I realized this guy is selling an actual physical desk clock. That clock is no longer for sale it appears, but a quick little search found that there are alternatives. In addition to the Bush countdown clocks above, I’ve found a few others:

• National Nightmare. A pretty good looking alternative inaugural countdown clock. I like their description of themselves: “The Bush Countdown Clock is designed and sold by Bookshop Santa Cruz – an independent bookstore in Santa Cruz, CA – widely known as the makers of the Newt Gingrich Barf Bag.” I guess I missed that one.
• BackwardsBush.com claims to be the original Bush Countdown Clock and it may be so. I have no idea. (from $9 to $120 depending on the clock)
• And this guy is kind of hilarious – he has a key chain countdown clock, but also things like golf balls printed with “01.20.09″ Damn that seems like a long way off.

Popularity: 41% [?]