Unenforced Optimism

I'm still going through my backlog of interesting articles, and I read a couple of unrelated-but-not articles today.

The first is an article on Japan's manga industry and, in particular, the dojinshii [sic] markets, a thriving completely-illegal-but-tolerated public marketplace for the sale of fan fiction. The manga industry is tolerating the infringement of its copyrights both for market research and talent spotting purposes.

The second is an article about unenforced laws in the U.S. and both why and how they fell out of enforcement.

The confluence of the two articles is probably pretty predictable based on the sources that I pull from, but it makes me think that, despite the moral bickering that we get up to in this country, everything's going to be OK in the end. I can wish that people would have a little more perspective in the here and now but will settle for being right in the long run. I am the king of complacency.

• Wired on Manga
• Slate on Unenforced Laws
  

The Cambridge Civic Journal

I just linked to the Cambridge Civic Journal a couple of minutes ago, but it's pretty awesome if you're interested in Cambridge politics. All sort of graphs and bars and statistics. Like this (swiped because there's not proper permalink over there ):

That's the age distribution for the 2006 election. See that late-30s bump? Somebody made the young'uns come out to vote for Democrats. I wonder if that was a national trend that boosted the Democrats in.

Here's another little bit.

Council Orders and Resolutions: 2006 - 2007 through Oct 29, incl. late orders of Oct 22
2006-2007	P	I	R	M	D	C	A	F
Davis	125	66	28	64	34	146	17	6
Decker	49	31	5	30	7	116	9	1530
Galluccio	55	55	6	35	319	147	3	2
Kelley	83	122	14	41	2	39	3	1
Maher	1	3	0	4	10	7	0	0
Murphy	60	10	11	22	7	95	6	2
Reeves	37	10	5	17	62	421	78	2
Simmons	73	51	19	46	24	139	14	1
Sullivan	90	69	24	113	763	550	68	4
Toomey	48	32	7	55	264	154	19	3
Total	398	348	90	332	1155	1517	193	1540

where F by the way stands for Foreign and National Policy matters. What the hell is Marjorie Decker doing? Cambridge is a pretty cosmopolitan town, but REALLY?! You're not on the Senate Foreign Affairs subcommittee here. My god!

Cool stuff over there.

Cambridge City Council Election Results

Via the Cambridge Civic Journal, here's the breakdown of yesterday's city council elections. And here's a link to the Wiki entry for the STV system that we use here in Cambridge.

I actually learned a couple more about the voting system this year than I have in the past, which makes me love Cambridge that much more. First, I learned that I should damned well fill my ballot out past #3 (especially if I'm voting for an underdog or a ne'er-do-well). There were almost enough exhausted ballots (that is, there were no viable choices left on them after the winnowing) to elect exhausted as a council member. Second, don't protest vote people. For example, say someone should mark Craig Kelley as #16 because said person wished to indicate that they were the last possible person they would want on council. Well, it's semi-possible that through the allocation process, said person could end up having their vote apportioned for Craig Kelley in the end. Unlikely, sure, but still possible if you vote the underdog/crazy people ticket.

More Cambridge Voting Info

I should probably read these candidate run-down lists I keep linking to, considering the election is next week.

I'm looking pretty hard at Jonathan Janik for #1 this year, both because he's a cutie and (so I don't sound like that's my only criteria) because he actually seems to have some ideas other than generalities and get-off-my-lawn oldster talk. I'd love to see someone fix the street-light timing in this town, particularly the lights near MIT over the Mass. Ave Bridge. Damned things piss me off every morning.

Craig Kelley gets my #infinity this year for being a bit of a tool in regards to the "GTA on the subway" brouhaha earlier this year.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/town_info/your_vote

Boo to retroactive immunity for telecoms

I like that the Dem candidates are hopping on board this one, if slowly. It's too bad Chris Dodd had to be the guy actually showing leadership on this one. Ah, well.

I e-mailed Capuano's office the other day about this. I'm curious to see what his response is, seeing that he's so tight with Pelosi. She's one of the politicians who seems to be bending to the pressure to allow AT&T and others to get off scot free for spying on us. Fuckers.

clipped from tpmelectioncentral.com It's official: Obama will back a filibuster of any Senate FISA legislation containing telecom immunity, his campaign has just told Election Central. The Obama campaign has just sent over the following statement from spokesman Bill Burton:

Election Time is Here!

It's the most wonderful time of the year (in Cambridge politics, at least. Christmas is better). Here's a link to the candidates: http://vote.rwinters.com/

Craig Kelley, I hope you go down!

Option 2! Option 2!

Bostonist is saying that the Green Line extension plan may not be falling apart after all. Which is frigging great news as far as I'm concerned. I want to buy a house someday, and I'll probably stay in Cambridge if I can possibly afford it. Expanding the Green Line will certainly open up a lot more area that's palatable, though, in the event that I'm too poor to afford something I really want. More likely, it'll ease off some of the price pressure into Somerville and Medford and keep things more affordable everywhere.

I hadn't seen this map of potential Green Line stops. Pretty cool. They really should work out some way to hook the Tufts and Davis stops together, though. Otherwise, that is going to be one looooong ass ride from Medford. Holy crap.

clipped from bostonist.com Those hoping for an extension of the Green Line into Somerville and Medford may have finally gotten a some good news. Governor Deval Patrick said on Friday that the state will request $300 million from the feds to build the extension.

Profile of Three Female Soldiers

Damn! You do not expect this sort of article in Marie Claire. It's not anti-Iraq, but it is very... I dunno, real? Oddly riveting? I'm not sure, but I can't imagine being in their situation. Or choosing to be in it in the first place. Iraq (war, in general, really) is just such a fucked-up situation.

read more | digg story

No more toll booths?

I just got myself a FastPass, and I love the fucking thing. I don't know why I didn't get one years ago. So, on the one hand, I think it's great that there may come a day when I don't have to deal with toll booths at all. On the other hand, there's a raving conspiracy nerd in the back of my head that's convinced the Man is going to put a bullet in the back of his head any day now, and he says that "open road" tolling will make it easier for the gov'mint to track me down when that day comes. I'd be all on board this if there were a way to opt out and get a private non-traceable transponder if one so chose.

clipped from www.boston.com Instead of fumbling for change or navigating through special lanes in transponder-equipped cars, drivers may soon have to do little more than cruise on and off highways passing under a metal beam spanning the entire width of the road. At the end of the month they'd receive a bill, much like any other utility bill. Except this bill would log each time they entered or exited a highway system, how far they traveled and how much they owed.

Music Scholar Barred From U.S., but No One Will Tell Her Why

I'm a worrier.

I worry about nuclear attacks. I worry about arsenic in my drinking water. I worry about global warming. I even worry about zombies sometimes. Right now I'm worried that my government is going to trump up charges and imprison me. I'm a liberal, and I'm given to occasional hysterics. Secret gestapo bullshit will do that to me, though.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Nalini Ghuman, an up-and-coming musicologist and expert on the British composer Edward Elgar, was stopped at the San Francisco airport in August last year and, without explanation, told that she was no longer allowed to enter the United States. Ms. Ghuman’s descent into the bureaucratic netherworld began on Aug. 8, 2006, when she and Mr. Flight returned to San Francisco from a research trip to Britain. Armed immigration officers met them at the airplane door and escorted Ms. Ghuman away. In a written account of the next eight hours that she prepared for her lawyer, Ms. Ghuman said that officers tore up her H-1B visa, which was valid through May 2008, defaced her British passport, and seemed suspicious of everything from her music cassettes to the fact that she had listed Welsh as a language she speaks. A redacted government report about the episode obtained by her lawyer under the Freedom of Information Act erroneously described her as “Hispanic.”

The Guardian on Underage Lifers

I wonder if the U.S. is ever going to outgrow its we're-so-tough approach to law and order. The prison system in this country is just so monumentally fucked up. Everyone, even the cowboys out there, has to realize just how bad it is, but anyone who espouses reform is committing political suicide by running the risk of being labeled soft on crime.

The link is to an article in the Guardian (trust a British paper to point out what a third-world bunch of mouth breathers we are) about Michigan prisoners who were dealt life sentences while still not being able to buy a drink in a pub. Despite it being the Guardian (how reputable is it?), it's really damning. As a general rule, I've got a pretty positive outlook on life and humanity, but this shit brings out the inner pessimist.

Link

Al Gore and the Media Cunts

It's been 7 years, and I still get this rush of adrenal rage when I think about the presidential election of 2000. It's just one of those turning points in history that alternate future sci-fi novels are written about.

I just finished an article in Vanity Fair where they reviewed the whole media debacle surrounding Al Gore's treatment and got a few comments from Gore himself. While I was reading, I actually got angry enough to make my hands shake a little bit. I have a pretty vivid inner eye, and I could actually picture hitting Maureen Dowd in the face. The feel of her nose smooshing against my fist. The slap-a-steak sound. Visceral crazy-person adrenal energy going through me. I've just never understood how I, as just a regular old everyday joe, with only the powers of the Internet on my side understood the basics of the election better than people who have actually trained to observe and report and research. It blows my mind to this day.

Link

I chose... wisely

About governor, that is. I have to admit that after voting for Deval Patrick (and being quite hopeful about him)I haven't paid any attention to what he has done or has not done.

But, this impressed me. Not many politicians would think about animal rescue operations when planning disaster preparedness. The situation for animals in New Orleans was just fucking awful. Nice to see some thought going on here in Mass.

clipped from www.boston.com 2 years after Katrina, Patrick to redo Mass. emergency response BOSTON --Two years after Hurricane Katrina highlighted woeful emergency planning, Gov. Deval Patrick is poised to unveil a major overhaul to the state's response plan to a natural or manmade disaster. Katrina also showed the lengths to which evacuees would go to save their pets, or the trauma they faced after losing them. That is prompting Massachusetts officials to include pet planning in its focus on dealing with vulnerable populations.

Government Transparency and the Clusterfuck

Short story short, Obama is the only Democrat promising compliance with this. Which is no real surprise because he was the co-author, in the first place. Yet another reason that, despite his lack of experience, he's the front-runner of my heart.

What's more puzzling is the lack of support by the other Democrats, several of whom (Clinton and Dodd, I'm looking at you), actually co-sponsored the original bill. The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act is already law; all you have to do is sign a statement that you will enforce it on sub-departments when you're executive in chief. I'm not sure whether the other Democrats just don't think it's an issue or are actually actively negative on this.

It's certainly an important issue for me. The next president needs to be free from the specter of secrecy and skullduggery that haunts the White House now. Please be straight with us.

clipped from blog.washingtonpost.com Support For Google Government It is one of the unlikelier alliances in the 2008 presidential campaign: what possibly could bring together Barack Obama, Sam Brownback and Ron Paul? The answer: the highly ambitious, if infelicitously named, Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. The act is meant to bring average Americans a kind of Google for the federal government, an online search engine that will allow citizens to look up any company, organization or other entity receiving federal contracts, grants and earmarks. The act was passed by Congress and signed by President Bush last year, but some of its supporters charge that federal agencies are already dragging their feet on its implementation.