Sense on Slavery

The world definitely needs more of this sort of stuff.

HOT Lanes, Shmot Lanes

I've just discovered that the final deforestation of the area surrounding Tysons Corner has been performed to construct HOT lanes. This is a grandiose and ultimately useless scheme to increase the capacity of a section of the DC beltway between the Springfield mixing bowl and the Dulles toll road.

It seems that America still isn't learning that the only thing bigger roads get you is more traffic. The web site promises that these new lanes (free to HOV users, available to other users for a charge depending on traffic volume) will reduce congestion. We'll see. One thing they certainly won't do is reduce the traffic.

The most noticeable change so far is that thousands of trees have been uprooted, thereby reducing the capacity of the environment to absorb carbon dioxide—which will, of course, increase as the traffic increases. Oh, and it looks like shit, too. The formerly pleasant driving environment is now an extension of the bleak concrete landscape that is Tysons. Give me back my trees, you fuckers.

If I were a tree in Virginia I'd be nervous.

Just Another President? How Sad

Despite my exuberant and possibly misplaced optimism about the election of President Obama, it appears that it's likely to be business as usual at the Whitehouse. The handouts continue to large corporations which should have been forced to go bankrupt (and today's news emphasizes that much of the taxpayer money used to fuel this munificence will never be recovered). That's politics, I suppose, and America is, after all, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.

But if today's repeat of information about the contents of the unpublished photographs from Iraq is to be believed then the President has lied through his teeth, thereby becoming complicit in the torture scandal by Bush and Cheney. It has been known since 2004 that prisoners have made many accusations of rape and sodomy against US soldiers. President Obama said in a statement on May 13 “I want to emphasize that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib.” Major General Antonio Taguba, the man responsible for the US army report on the Abu Ghraib atrocities, says that the unreleased photos showed rape and sexual abuse of women and minors.

This lends a whole new meaning to “not particularly sensational”, making it a phrase worthy to be called Newspeak. Being "economical with the truth" is one thing, but President Obama seems to have told a gratuitous lie when it wasn't necessary. Strike one, President Obama. Strike one. I might reluctantly accept that the President's decision to keep the photographs unpublished makes rather more sense in the light of this information, but I can't accept that as a reason to lie about the contents.

Obama's point was that those responsible for the atrocities have been dealt with appropriately. I respectfully disagree, the consequences stopped far too low on the food chain. It really is time that the people responsible were held accountable for the horrendous torrent of death and maiming that they loosed upon the world. Obama is caught in the aftermath, as he is in so many political dimensions. Congress needs to find its balls and teach Bush and Cheney such a lesson that no future presidents would dare to abuse their executive powers in such a way again. One suspects the problem is that many Congressmen are concerned to prevent similar actions being taken against them for their self-serving greed and corruption.

This all makes "government of the people by the people" seem like a joke in very poor taste. Still, at least the USA has the 23rd best education system in the world. It would be nice to think there'd be some money to fix that soon.

Elephant Abuse: Letter to the Secretary of Agriculture

Dear Secretary Vilsack:

I am writing further to yesterday's email in the hopes that the USDA can finally be persuaded to finally ensure that Lancelot Ramos Kollman, aka Lancelot Kollman Ramos, the person from whom the lately deceased elephant Ned was finally confiscated last November, can never again work as a trainer. His documented history of neglect and abuse makes it clear that no animal should be entrusted to his care.

I would also request an urgent investigation into the activities of Tom Frisco, an elephant trainer employed by the Carson and Barnes circus. There is documented video evidence of his cruel methods - see

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryDfr3jid_4 [beware: not suitable for children]

for a graphic record of vicious brutality. You should also note that Carson and Barnes routinely separates elephant mothers from their young, inducing in both parent and child levels of trauma and stress sufficient to render them vulnerable to fatal viral illnesses. This is almost certainly why their elephant Jenni, born in 1999, died at the age of 5 years from the elephant endotheliotripic herpes virus.

Lastly, urgent action is also needed in the case of the Hamid circus, currently abusing elephants Tina, Jewel and Queenie, apparently owned by the Davenport family. USDA inspectors have documented numerous and egregious violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including multiple wounds consistent with ankus abuse, eye-witness reports of beatings, and the "inappropriate and abusive use of the ankus..." Yet the USDA has failed to enforce its own confiscation regulations to ensure that no further harm will come to Tina, Jewel and Queenie.

Your action in these and similar cases would earn my lasting support. Please help these magnificent animals, who are quite unable to fend for themselves and are being abused in clear violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act. If you need further assistance to enable you to marshal the necessary resources please let me know.

Sincerely
Steve Holden
--
Steve Holden +1 571 484 6266 +1 800 494 3119
Holden Web LLC http://www.holdenweb.com/
Watch PyCon on video now! http://pycon.blip.tv/

Free Cartoons for Your Blog

I've been a fan of Daryl Cagle's work for a while now. Not only is he a good cartoonist, he also makes enterprising use of the web to promote his own work as well as that of many other cartoonists via his cagle.com site.

I'd even been toying with the idea of creating a budget to include a different cartoon each week, so I was pleasantly surprised to read on Twitter today that the cartoons now come with an "embed" button that allows you to put them into your blog royalty-free.

Here's an example that succinctly encapsulates the Republican opposition's first 100 days:

See Cartoons by R.J. Matson - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

This is a great step forward, and I hope that other electronic publishers will follow suit. Happily cagle.com includes work from cartoonists with both left-wing and right-wing points of view, so if you are selective you will be able to maintain your own bias as I intend to.

China: Stop the Executions!

On April 8th, China sentenced two Tibetans, Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak, to death for their alleged involvement in last year's protests in Lhasa. Two others, Phuntsok and Kangtsuk, were also sentenced to death but with a two year reprieve, and Dawa Sangpo was sentenced to life imprisonment.

These harsh sentences signal an alarming escalation in the Chinese government's campaign to punish and intimidate Tibetans who dare to speak out against Chinese rule.

If you agree that such punishments are harsh and unjustified please take action. Below is the text of an email I sent to China's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yang Jiechi, and its Minister of Justice, Wu Aiying.

To send a similar letter please visit this web page and fill out the form, editing the letter to suit your own feelings.

I am outraged to learn that the Chinese government has sentenced four Tibetans to death and one Tibetan to life imprisonment. While China has the right to determine its own policy I hope the government understands that these decisions are widely seen as repressive and reactionary.

I understand that Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak have been sentenced to death without a reprieve, and I call for an immediate stay of execution and an independent inquiry into their cases.

I am gravely concerned for Tenzin Phuntsok and Kangtsuk who have also been sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, and for Dawa Sangpo who has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

These individuals were denied their basic legal rights, and the trials were not conducted in accordance with international judicial standards. As the most populous nation on Earth I would have hoped that China could set a better example for other, less civilized, countries.

The Chinese government has responded to last year's protests with extreme violence, and these harsh sentences are a blatant attempt to further intimidate Tibetans from speaking out against Chinese rule.

I call on the Chinese government to immediately halt these executions and reverse these unjust sentences.

I will be notifying my government representatives about this situation, and I will urge them to take strong action to condemn this travesty of justice. Please consider seriously this call to revise the unjust punishments meted out to the above-named individuals.

China has the potential to be the greatest nation in the world, but at present the forces of repression appear to be actively supporting an approach that will drag the country back towards the middle ages.

No Bonuses? Take the Money Back!

I was glad to read in a recent report that the President has taken the gloves off with the bankers whom our tax money has been bailing out. Suddenly the fat cats who have taken our tax dollars and used them just as irresponsibly as their shareholders' funds now want to give back the TARP funds they were only too willing to take and carry on paying themselves unwarranted huge bonuses for screwing their customers.

It seems there is no end to human greed. Perhaps if the education system were more effective the people who have run the economy aground would find that there was a public outcry against letting them continue business as usual. I'm glad President Obama refuses to take the money back. It's time these cosseted bandits learned the hard facts of life, which sadly aren't taught much on Wall Street.

Unfortunately stealing from the poor is legal, whereas stringing the rich up by their nuts remains a crime. Truly the collective noun for bankers is "a wunch". [Non-British readers: this may take a little research].