The Berger files

Former national security advisor Sandy Berger should appear in court tomorrow and plead guilty to swiping classified documents from the national archives, a misdemeanor.

He [Berger] said he was reviewing the materials to help determine which Clinton administration documents to provide to the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Berger and his lawyer, Lanny Breuer, have said Berger knowingly removed the handwritten notes by placing them in his jacket and pants and inadvertently took copies of actual classified documents in a leather portfolio. He returned most of the documents, but some still are missing.

The Clinton administration seemed to have problems with disappearing documents.

Coulter on the Kaw

Jimbobb2 over at The Shaggy Dog has the skinny (or at least a couple of great witticisms) about Ann Coulter's appearance at my alma mater, The University of Kansas. (KU, in Lawrence, is on the banks of the Kansas River, also known as the Kaw). Thanks, Jim.

Mullethead

Heidi Stevens at the Chicago Tribune reports a shift in hairstyles and asks these important questions:

Are mullets mounting a comeback? And is it too early to get Congress involved?

So maybe there actually is something productive congress can do.

Our shiny new recycling cart

Imagine how thrilled I was to come home to a shiny new, gigantic recycling cart. The beautiful grey container replaces a couple of dinky little bins and will hold our weekly refuse of bottles, cans and newspapers. It joins its handsome cousins, the brown cart for trash, the green monster for yard debris and the cute baby kitchen pail for food scraps. Garage space was at a premium before our new arrival so now we're not quite sure where we'll be keeping the cars.

MGM vs. Grokster

The U.S. Supreme Court begins hearing arguments tomorrow in MGM vs. Grokster, which makes peer to peer software that lets internet users share songs and other files. It's seen as the most important copyright case since the 1984 Sony Betamax decision. The New York Times takes a surprisingly capitalistic position on it.

The battle over online music piracy is usually presented as David versus Goliath: the poor student in his dorm hunted down by a music conglomerate. It is easy, in that matchup, to side with the student. But when the Supreme Court takes up the issue this week, we hope it considers another party to the dispute: individual creators of music, movies and books, who need to keep getting paid if they are going to keep creating. If their work is suddenly made "free," all of society is likely to suffer.

The Betamax case favored Sony, allowing the company to sell its home video recorders over Hollywood's objections that the technology would be used to illegally copy movies.

Guilty of something

Go ahead. Try to guess who said this before going to the SF Chronicle for the whole story.

"Elizabeth Taylor used to feed me, to hand-feed me, at times."

Geo-green

Thomas L. Friedman at the NY Times believes President Bush is missing an opportunity to implement a "geo-green strategy" to avert an energy crisis. In today's editorial he says we need only do three things:

We need a gasoline tax that would keep pump prices fixed at $4 a gallon, even if crude oil prices go down.

We need to start building nuclear power plants again.

And we need some kind of carbon tax that would move more industries from coal to wind, hydro and solar power, or other, cleaner fuels.

Friedman explains that higher taxes will decrease consumption and raise revenue on gasoline and coal. He also argues that higher gas prices would change America's car-buying habits to more fuel-efficient vehicles.

First of all, excise taxes are not effective at reducing consumption, just look at alcohol and cigarettes. Secondly, it's difficult to reduce consumption and increase tax revenue on a commodity simultaneously. Thirdly, do liberals have any answers that don't include new taxes?

I don't have a problem with building new nuclear power plants, but I don't look forward to Bay Area liberals chaining themselves together and blocking traffic to protest them.

Happy Easter!

Dumb jocks

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Jesse Jackson is blaming NCAA schools for lousy graduation rates for student athletes, particularly black basketball players.

Jackson attributed African-American athletes' lower graduation rate to inadequate college preparation in many inner-city high schools. He also blamed coaches and schools for their single-minded emphasis on athletics over academics.

The story does not say whether Jackson places any responsibility for poor academic performance on the student athletes themselves or their parents.

Fox Blocker

I first came across this story over at Shane Raynor but you can bet it's going to make its way around pretty quickly.

It's not that Sam Kimery objects to the views expressed on Fox News. The creator of the "Fox Blocker" contends the channel is not news at all. Kimery figures he's sold about 100 of the little silver bits of metal that screw into the back of most televisions, allowing people to filter Fox News from their sets, since its August debut.

What can you say about the folks who would buy this thing?

Circling for a space

One of the constant challenges of living in the Bay Area is parking.

The financial markets and my office were all closed for Good Friday, giving me a great opportunity for a mid-morning workout. When I got to the gym it was apparent that most folks weren't as fortunate as me, they were working. That means downtown Oakland, where my gym is, was hopping. Nowhere to park. I drove around the same four-block area for twenty minutes without any luck and finally caved and parked in the Kaiser Center Garage. Twelve bucks for 79 minutes! I suppose it's cheaper than a heart attack.

I heard once that there are something like 5 million cars in the Bay Area and only 3 million places to park them. That means that, at any given moment, there have to be 2 million cars moving. My guess is that most of them are just circling, looking for a space.

Some good from this?

The legal and ethical struggle over Terri Schiavo is the third prominent right-to-die case in the last thirty years. Nancy Cruzan died in 1990 in Mount Vernon, Missouri after her feeding tube was removed. She had been injured in a car accident in 1983. Karen Ann Quinlan died in 1985 after slipping into a coma at a party in New Jersey.

Each of these three women was under the age of thirty when incapacitated.

If there is anything good to come from these tragedies, it might be the attention brought to the value of planning for unexpected incapacity. Talk to your family and friends about your wishes and write them down.

Download forms for Advance Medical Directives, Living Wills and Medical Powers of Attorney.

Most states will require the signatures of two witnesses or a notary on these documents. Get your family and friends together for a big old' signing party.

Strange alliance

Just when I thought the U.S. had become more polarized than ever...

A novel coalition of conservatives and liberals normally at each other's throats over the nature of government and free speech have made common cause to oppose key parts of the USA Patriot Act anti-terrorism law.

The ACLU, The American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform and the Free Congress Foundation have teamed up to challenge the USA Patriot Act saying the law is too intrusive and allows the government to spy on innocent Americans.

Dropout Dispute

A Harvard study, according to the SF Chronicle, says California needs some schoolin' on how to count its dropouts.

In a searing indictment of California's school system, Harvard University researchers say the state graduates only 71 percent of its high school students -- not the 87 percent it claims.

Not surprising. California educators have much more important issues to deal with, like renaming the schools.

Terrorists killed

I don't mean to appear giddy that 85 people lost their lives, but isn't it nice to see the good guys win some battles rather than reading about another cowardly terrorist bombing in a shopping district?

An Iraqi official said Wednesday that 85 insurgents were killed on Tuesday when Iraqi commandos, assisted by U.S. air and ground support, staged a midday attack on a suspected training camp in a rural area northwest of the capital.

Self apology

I didn't see the Jayhawks' exhibition of lousy sportsmanship after their stunning loss to 14th seeded Bucknell last Friday. I couldn't stand to watch much of the second half at all. But the Jayhawks, it seems, were a bunch of pretty sore losers.

Only a handful of Kansas players stayed around for the traditional handshake last week when the Bison shocked the No. 3 seed Jayhawks 64-63. It was Kansas' first opening-round loss since 1978.

Self (the Jayhawks head coach) said one problem was that Bucknell's players did not all line up to shake hands after Wayne Simien's desperation jumper at the buzzer came up short. Instead, many of them ran onto the floor in celebration.

When Self called Bucknell coach Pat Flannery to apologize, Flannery said:

"Don't sweat it, we were running around like we won a championship and I can understand guys not waiting while we were celebrating"

For the Jayhawks, the new season starts now and it starts by bidding farewell to the seniors who just couldn't let go of Roy Williams. They didn't play up to their potential and they let a lot of faithful fans down as well as their teammates. Goodbye and good luck. The Self era has begun.

Only in Berkeley

Apparently, being a founding father of the greatest nation on earth doesn't have the same cachet it once did. At least, not in Berkeley.

Parents, students and teachers at Berkeley's Thomas Jefferson Elementary School will soon vote on whether to rename their school because the nation's third president was a slave owner.

Contenders for the new name included Ralph Bunche, the African American diplomat at the United Nations who was the first person of color to win the Nobel Peace Prize; farmworker organizer Cesar Chavez; and Florence McDonald, the late Berkeley city councilwoman, leftist political leader and mother of singer Country Joe McDonald.

But the folks in Berkeley seem to have a dislike for other famous white people as well.

In 1999, Columbus Elementary School in West Berkeley was rebuilt after it was found to be seismically unsafe, and it was renamed Rosa Parks Elementary School - but only after intense debate about whether Cesar Chavez was a better alternative.

Also, James Garfield Middle School was renamed after Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and Abraham Lincoln Elementary School was renamed for Malcolm X in the 1970s.

The city of Berkeley itself is named for Bishop George Berkeley, an Irish philosopher. Hmmm. That's not very P.C. either...

Auntie Em! Auntie Em!

It ripped the roofs off of dozens of homes and businesses, uprooted trees and had winds of 70-110 mile per hour, but it took San Francisco meteorologists a full day to decide what to call it. Today it became official, it was a tornado, a wimpy one, but nonetheless a tornado.

Legendary automaker dies

John Z. DeLorean,80, died Saturday, March 19th in Summit, New Jersey after a stroke.

DeLorean is best-known for the failed automobile venture that bore his name and which only achieved any lasting notoriety through the film "Back to the Future". But prior to going out on his own, DeLorean had been a remarkable success in Detroit. He rescued the failing Pontiac Division of General Motors by designing the GTO in the late sixties and was also credited with creating the overhead cam engine, concealed windshield wipers, racing stripes and many other automotive innovations.

He was promoted to the Chevrolet division and was expected to take the reins of the auto giant when he resigned his $650,000 a year job in 1973. GM gave him a Cadillac dealership as a retirement gift but DeLorean wanted to build his own car company.

Only 9,000 DeLorean DMC-12s were built in the plant in Northern Ireland. The company was fraught with cost overruns and design problems. The car, which was intended to be everyman's sportscar, wound up selling for $25,000, far beyond the budget of most buyers in 1981. The plant was closed late in 1982 about the same time DeLorean was arrested in Los Angeles with 55 pounds of cocaine. He was acquitted of the drug charges but would face nearly 40 lawsuits stemming from the demise of his car company.

SF protests

The San Francisco Chronicle publishes this account of anti-war protests in the city yesterday. Waaay down at the end of the story was this:

Just before 3 p.m., some 200 to 300 protesters, some with bandanas covering their faces, broke away from the main group and ran into the streets, circling the area of Market and Van Ness Avenue.

Chanting "Whose streets? Our streets?" and "Build the community, smash the state," the group beat on doors and, at times, blocked traffic. On Duboce Avenue, they overturned kitchen equipment that was being delivered to a restaurant and rolled some metal carts in the way of police.

While this group was not representative of the protesters overall, damaging property and resisting police doesn't do anything but hurt their cause.