links-20

ETEXT (political) Archives were founded in the Summer of 1992 in response to the lack of organized archiving of political documents, periodicals and discussions disseminated via Usenet on newsgroups such as alt.activism, misc.activism.progressive, and alt.society.anarchy. The alt.politics.radical-left group came later.

Eyes, Opening Up the Russian Doll, part2 -- The eye has always had a special place in the study of evolution,

Good news for creationists Ha!! -- Since the front door of the scientific establishment is clearly open to you, as demonstrated by the eventual acceptance of the Pangaea hypothesis,- you have no excuse for trying to sneak in the back door, by using political pressure to insert your views into science textbooks.

Liberal affars, debate club (archive) brings together a pair of experts to discuss a pressing legal question. In daily exchanges, they develop arguments, test ideas, and shape opinions.

links-13

Digital Rights, Digital Wrongs By Jerry Pournelle -- Byte August 16, 2004

Microsoft Research DRM talk , Cory Doctorow cory@eff.org -- June 17, 2004 PDF Version

Interpreting The Constitution -- Feb 10, 2005 -- 'When the Senate holds judicial nomination hearings, there are often fierce debates over how to interpret the Constitution. What are these battles really about?' ( Chicago Public Radio audio stream ).

Here is another "Escape from a locked room" game. from: mahalanobis

It’s My Party Too is a political action committee dedicated to supporting fiscally conservative, socially progressive moderate Republican candidates at all levels of government.

Strange political ideas -- what are the most expensive government programs? -- February 10, 2005

Tech Support -- 16 best-ever freeware. -- November 2004.

good-gov

There is some discussion that Iraq may not be moving toward a "Good Government". Without taking a side on this discussion, I suggest we should determine how we measure whether a country is Good or not. I sent the following to the author of:

Iraq and Iran

What I would like to see is the development of a set of criteria so that as
time proceeds we can measure the Iraq government, and others, against them.
e.g.

1. Competition -- There is a "reasonable" degree of un-certaincy in the
   outcome of elections.
   
   
2. Government supremacy -- The elected/appointed Government is supreme and
   no other group has veto power over it.
   
   
3. No State Religion -- There is no specific religious test, requirement,
   etc. in the law that favors any religion over another. (Note: We may extend
   this to not favoring religion over say agnostics)
   
   
4. Bill of Rights -- There are guaranteed rights that specify the limits of
   the Government that are extensive and can only be changed by a lengthy
   super-majority process.
   
   
5. Rule of Law -- The property and liberty of individuals is protected
   against government actions except through the open action of the
   governmentally authorized agencies as they follow clearly stated legal
   structures.
   
   
6. Free enterprise -- Individuals can participate in economic interactions
   without "significant" involvement by the Government.

Others?

The Case for Democracy: Town Square society -- Not Fear society.

Free societies are societies in which the right of dissent is protected. In contrast, fear societies are societies in which dissent is banned. One can determine whether a society is free by applying what we call the “town-square test.” Can someone within that society walk into the town square and say what they want without fear of being punished for his or her views? If so, then that society is a free society. If not, it is a fear society.

Budget-07

The proposed Bush Budget for 2006 is being released. $427B debt est. As time passes, there will be a number of comments on it. I hope that there is a discussion of it. My proposal is to have a fully functional Forum and Poll area that allows the development of both a Lean budget and a Fully Funded budget. (overview) (Tables)

Off budget items

• Costs of War
  
• Change in Alternate Minimum Tax?
  
• Effect of making tax cuts permanent
  
• Effect of modifying Social Security
  
• Effect of tax "simplification"

. 1) The "Lean" budget would be a small as the Bush budget, but decrease some of the expenses and increase others to fund the programs that are better funded.

. 2) The "Fully Funded" budget would have the same debit as the Bush budget, but in addition to different funding of various programs it would also permit elimination of some of the tax give-backs to provide more money.

Links:

The Bush Budget Reflects The GOP's True Moral Values - Or Lack Of Them, -- The Left Coaster

A head fake, not a flip-flop. -- I would strongly caution everyone to interpret the news of massive cuts to farm subsidies in the president's budget proposal very, very skeptically. -- American Prospect

Bush's budget -- A brief overview of these cuts -- Daily Kos

Analysis 2006 United States Federal Budget (proposed) From dKosopedia, the free political encyclopedia.

Other:

The Liberal Agenda by The Readers of The American Prospect -- We’re taking suggestions: What does liberalism stand for?

It is stated that it is not true that "in theory the higher returns in private accounts would offset any benefit cuts."

Links-06

State of the Union 2005: Reality Check -- Posted: 02/03/05, American Prospective

Thinking with Type, (on-line companion to book): A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students, by Ellen Lupton


Pay or Free?: Newspaper Archives Not Ready for Open Web...Yet -- By Mark Glaser, 2005-02-01, Online Journalism Review, a Web-based journal produced at the Annenberg School for Communication

A Fair and Simple Tax System for our Future: A Progressive Approach to Tax Reform, January 31, 2005

ss-04

Social Security links/Questions.

Understanding The Bush Plan -- Matt Yglesias

TSR - Thrift Savings Plan -- government info page.

As I read it, the TSRs are similar to the ADD ON accounts that we now have, e.g. 401Ks. Thus are not examples of the Bush "personal" accounts.

Some simple questions on Social Security -- leftwing view of the day's news

Did Bush say Crisis? -- The Social Security system will take in more money annually than it pays out in benefits until 2020, two years later than earlier estimated,... Congress' budget analysts also estimated the program's trust funds will be depleted in 2052, (10 years after earlier estimated)

Myths v. Realities on social security in the United States -- eriposte.com

Disability? As I read it, 10% of the money people normally pay for SS actually goes into Disability insurance etc. I wonder how this is handled with respect to Personal accounts. If a person takes 66% of his personal SS taxes for his personal account, does this mean that his disability payments will be decreased accordingly?

Annuity? We know that if a person chooses a personal account, their SS benefits will be decreased, though the exact figure is TBD. On the other hand is their personal account their own money, or do they have to purchase an annuity?, thus effectively only allowing them to have, as their own money, the "profit" of the account.

----------------- Other Links ---------------

Observed Impacts of Global Climate Change in the U.S. -- Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Nov 2004

Fear of Physics -- friendly, non-technical place for you to come and "play" with the laws of physics for a while

Way Back Machine -- Internet archive