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August 31, 2007
Noted In Passing
Posting will be light (or non-existent, most likely) through the holiday weekend.
The usual Saturday and Sunday stuff will still occur.
At any rate, "wide stances" are bad in public bathrooms.
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August 30, 2007
Flashback
Two years ago today:
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You Don't Roll Out A New Product In August
Juan Cole passes along an unconfirmed tip that DeFib Dick has ordered the selling of the Iran war to begin next week.
Given that on Tuesday George was going on about a "nuclear holocaust" should Iran continue with its nuke program we might want to take this seriously.
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August 29, 2007
Somebody's A Wee Bit Defensive
Last night on MSNBC Live, during a discussion about Sen. Larry Craig's (R-ID) arrest for "lewd conduct" and eventual guilty plea, MSNBC's Tucker Carlson described his assault on a man who he said "bothered" him in a Washington, D.C., public restroom.Carlson asserted, "Having sex in a public men's room is outrageous. It's also really common. I've been bothered in men's rooms." When host Dan Abrams asked how Carlson responded to being "bothered," Carlson asserted, "I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy by the -- you know, and grabbed him, and ... hit him against the stall with his head, actually. ... And then the cops came and arrested him." Carlson had claimed earlier in the discussion, "I've been bothered in Georgetown Park," in Washington, D.C., "when I was in high school."
Apparently, Carlson wants it to be known that he's definitely not gay. And who's to argue with this example of prime heterosexual beef?
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UPDATE: Tucker now denies he engaged in any fag-bashing.
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Brilliant!
I removed this post because it revealed my extraordinarily poor reading comprehension skills.
And I gave myself the "Idiots" tag as punishment.
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***IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT***
Sen. Larry Craig (R-Wide Stance) wants you to know:
"Let me be clear: I am not gay. I never have been gay[.]"
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Permanent Fear
John Cole, via C&L, finds this gem:
Two people who sprinkled flour in a parking lot to mark a trail for their offbeat running club inadvertently caused a bioterrorism scare and now face a felony charge.The sprinkled powder forced hundreds to evacuate an IKEA furniture store Thursday.
New Haven ophthalmologist Daniel Salchow, 36, and his sister, Dorothee, 31, who is visiting from Hamburg, Germany, were both charged with first-degree breach of peace, a felony.
[...]
Daniel Salchow biked back to IKEA when he heard there was a problem and told officers the powder was just harmless flour, which he said he and his sister have sprinkled everywhere from New York to California without incident.
“Not in my wildest dreams did I ever anticipate anything like that,” he said.
Mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga said the city plans to seek restitution from the Salchows, who are due in court Sept. 14.
“You see powder connected by arrows and chalk, you never know,” she said. “It could be a terrorist, it could be something more serious. We’re thankful it wasn’t, but there were a lot of resources that went into figuring that out.”
As John says, welcome to Bedwetter Nation. Not all that surprising, perhaps, given that the administration believes in ruling by fear. I believe psychologists call this "learned helplessness."
Heckuva job, Bushie.
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Oh, Yeah, That's What They Need
Haven't they suffered enough?
President Bush is marking Hurricane Katrina's devastating blow two years ago by celebrating those he says have "dedicated their lives to the renewal of New Orleans" even as he and others are criticized for not doing more to get the city and Gulf Coast back to their former selves.Bush and his wife, Laura, are to spend Wednesday's anniversary remembering the storm in New Orleans and Bay St. Louis, Miss.
(Image by Suspect Device via scout prime.)
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August 28, 2007
August 27, 2007
The Next Attorney General?
I know this has been floating around since Attaturk published it yesterday but since BushCo™ is in the market for a new AG why not go with Miss Teen South Carolina, Lauren Caitlin Upton?
If you think that's hard to understand try the transcript:
Questioner: Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?Miss Teen South Carolina: I personally believe the U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and the Iraq everywhere like such as and I believe they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa or should help the Iraq and Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for us.
She'd be perfect for this administration!
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Buh-Bye
The NYT reports that Alberto Abu Ghraib Guantanamo Gonzalez has resigned. On Friday USN&WR reported that Abu G would be replaced by Michael Chertoff.
From one incompetent moron to another.
Perhaps the Congressional Dems will make a stand and block Chertoff (if it is indeed him).
(Yes, I made myself laugh at the thought of Dems making a stand.)
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August 26, 2007
A Bit of Egon Schiele
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August 25, 2007
Saturday Palate Cleanser
Violent Femmes - "Gone Daddy Gone"
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Geiger's (Final?) "Saturday Cartoons"
Bob has decided to take an "extended break" from blogging. Let's hope it's a short one. Anyway, click the link, as the kids say, to read his message and check out the Saturday cartoons. Here's one from Jeff Danzinger:
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August 24, 2007
A Floor Wax!
You can't have missed the fact that the president this week gave the dumbest speech in the history of that office. You would not think you could stuff that much stupid into a single human being, but they managed to do it. Turns out, Iraq is Vietnam after all, if it's not Korea, and it's still World War II, unless it turns out to be World War IV. It's a dessert topping! It's a floor wax! Our inexplicable quitting of Southeast Asia after dropping the 500,000th ton of bombs on the place is the reason we lost the World Trade Center nearly three decades later. Ayman al-Zawahiri said so, and if you can't trust his grasp of American political history, who can you trust anyway? Oh, and we're all Alden Pyle, who turns out to have been a much sweller feller than Graham Greene thought he was. I swear to almighty god, if they'd put in his text that we're all really the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, he'd have read that. And CNN would have broadcast it, verbatim, without its anchors falling off their stools in helpless laughter. Have I mentioned recently that we're freaking doomed? Mind you, I think he has a point about Vietnam. One more trained pilot from the champagne unit of the Texas Air National Guard, and we'd have kicked Charlie's ass all over Indochina. Shame there wasn't one of those available.
As they say, read the whole thing.
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Beeeeeees!
I don't know if Mountie training prepared them for this:
Mounties in eastern Canada were called in to help round up rogue honeybees after a palace coup this week caused a split in the hive, a spokesperson said on Thursday."The beekeeper came to us and said that he lost half of his bees, about 30 000 to 40 000 of them," said Cheryl Decker, spokesperson for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, as the Mounties are officially known.
"He said they were last seen near a Tim Horton's" donut shop on the edge of town, said the spokesperson for the detachment in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. "He wanted us to help him round them up."
[...]
Beekeeper Rodney Dillinger said the colony was likely "stressed" and became dissatisfied with their queen. So, they raised a rival queen and then sent the original queen into exile.
But half of the hive left with the deposed queen to "look for a new home".
I keep telling you that they're up to something.
[Via Reason.]
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So I Don't Have To
I was batting around some ideas for dealing with the latest "Rah Rah Iraq War" column from Chuckles Krauthammer when I saw that The Hon. Dr. St. Rev. Bradley S. Rocket, Esq, PhD, MD did it better than I ever could have.
And with a picture!
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It's Time For Me To Reexamine My Life
Because I agree with Newt Gingrich:
We don't really have presidential debates today; we have a kind of meaningless political performance art: a recitation of talking points choreographed to avoid any risk.In the 2004 election, the Bush-Kerry debate rules ran a full 32 pages of do's and don'ts, including one rule that ordered the moderator to stop any candidate who dared to depart from the script to reference someone in the audience.
The candidates also were ordered to turn over for inspection "all such paper and any pens or pencils with which a candidate may wish to take notes during the debate." Pen and pencils. Talk about the vital stuff of democracy!
[...]
And after nine 90-minute conversations broadcast to their living rooms and computer screens every Sunday night, Americans will have a remarkable sense of the two personalities vying for their votes. We will know, better than a 30-second ad could ever tell us, which person has the ideas, the character and the capacity to lead our nation.
Political debates are no more than free high profile advertising today. Only Republican Mike Huckabee has agreed to this format (with Rudy expressing interest). But in this Age of Consultants, in which "message control" is valued above all else, I expect few other candidates, Republican or Democrat, to take up the challenge. And the vapidity will roll on.
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Crumbling
On the heels of Sen. John Warner's apostasy (though like his pal Sen. Dick Lugar he has no intention of actually doing anything) comes word that the Joint Chiefs are going to recomend reducing troop levels in Iraq by half:
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is expected to advise President Bush to reduce the U.S. force in Iraq next year by almost half, potentially creating a rift with top White House officials and other military commanders over the course of the war.Administration and military officials say Marine Gen. Peter Pace is likely to convey concerns by the Joint Chiefs that keeping well in excess of 100,000 troops in Iraq through 2008 will severely strain the military. This assessment could collide with one being prepared by the U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, calling for the U.S. to maintain higher troop levels for 2008 and beyond.
However:
Any discord among the top U.S. generals could be awkward for Bush, who professes to rely heavily on advice from military leaders. But there also is tremendous pressure for military officers to speak with one voice and defer to Petraeus and other field commanders. It remains possible that the Joint Chiefs may opt to weaken their stance before approaching Bush.
There's a slight chance that by this time next year George will be isolated in his bunker with Laura waiting in vain for Army Group Steiner.
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Yep
After discussing Jim Hoagland's pretty good column in today's WaPo Josh concludes:
And when you boil all this down what it comes down to is that the president now has very different interests than the country he purports to lead.
And that is the nut of the matter.
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August 23, 2007
Aaaaaand Again
Your National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:
If you want to know something as simple as who heads the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, don’t bother to ask the safety agency’s communications office. Without special permission, officials there are no longer allowed to provide information to reporters except on a background basis, which means it cannot be attributed to a spokesman.[...]
So, I will end the suspense about the boss’s identity. The administrator is Nicole R. Nason, who took over on May 31, 2006, after she was appointed to the post by President Bush.
And it is she who put the big hush on one of the government’s most important safety agencies. I found this out recently when I asked to talk to an N.H.T.S.A. researcher about some technical safety issues in which he had a great deal of expertise. Agency officials told me I could talk to the expert on a background basis, but if I wanted to use any information or quotes from him, that would have to be worked out later with a N.H.T.S.A. official. The arrangement struck me as manipulative, and I declined to agree to it.
[...]
It seems that Ms. Nason has adopted a policy that has blocked virtually all of her staff — including the communications office — from providing any information to reporters on the record, which means that it can be attributed.
As an alternative I was told I could interview Ms. Nason on the record (instead of the expert on the subject of my article). I declined, failing to see how her appointment as administrator — she was trained as a lawyer — made her a expert in that subject.
When I said I would like to talk to Ms. Nason on the record about her no-attribution policy, she was not available.
Who is Nason?
At the time of her nomination, Nason was serving "as Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Governmental Affairs. Prior to this, she served as Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Congressional Affairs for the United States Customs Service. Ms. Nason also served as Communications Director and Counsel to Representative Porter J. Goss. Earlier in her career, she served as Governmental Affairs Counsel at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
Ultimately, an insurance company hack. Fox, meet henhouse.
Love the glasses, though:
(Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
[Via Steve Benen.]
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Graham Greene
I'm not going to spend much time on this as trying to deal with George isn't worth Ruining My Beautiful Mind* but referencing Greene's The Quiet American to support the war in Iraq might very well be the stupidest thing I've ever heard of (see here and here). For those who haven't read the book here's the super-short version: The titular American, Alden Pyle, represents the ignorance and arrogance of the United States in Vietnam.
Probably not the conclusion that George wanted us to come to in regards to the Middle East. It's pretty clear that neither George nor his speechwriters nor anyone on his staff who signed off on the speech has actually read the damned thing (or even seen the most recent film version).
So, in a way, George made a very good point even if he doesn't understand what that point is.
*Copyright BarBush Industries, LLC.
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ADDED: digby wonders if Jonah "Doughy Pantload" Goldberg is now writing George's speeches.
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August 22, 2007
[bangs head on desk]
Later today George is going to give a speech saying that we can't leave Iraq because of...Vietnam:
As he awaits a crucial progress report on Iraq, President Bush will try to put a twist on comparisons of the war to Vietnam by invoking the historical lessons of that conflict to argue against pulling out.[...]
The president will also make the argument that withdrawing from Vietnam emboldened today's terrorists by compromising U.S. credibility, citing a quote from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden that the American people would rise against the Iraq war the same way they rose against the war in Vietnam, according to the excerpts.
"Here at home, some can argue our withdrawal from Vietnam carried no price to American credibility, but the terrorists see things differently," Bush will say.
I'd be shocked by the shamelessness of this if I was capable of being shocked anymore.
Be sure to read Attaturk's take.
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Listen Up, Congressional Dems
Via Swampland, this could be important:
A new Gallup Poll finds Congress' approval rating the lowest it has been since Gallup first tracked public opinion of Congress with this measure in 1974. Just 18% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, while 76% disapprove, according to the August 13-16, 2007, Gallup Poll.[...]
The nine-point drop in Congress' job approval rating from last month to this month has come exclusively from Democrats and independents, with Democrats' ratings dropping 11 points (from 32% to 21%) and independents' ratings dropping 13 points (from 30% to 17%). Republicans' 18% approval rating is unchanged from last month. [Emphasis added.]
Dear Nancy and Rahm and Harry and Chuck:
Your strategery of simply not losing next year's elections is pissing off your base in a big - and I mean BIG - way. Now imagine a big chunk of them sitting on their hands or voting for independent candidates on election day.
Think about it.
Love and kisses,
-spork
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Crackpottery
PZ Myers is being sued by some creationist crackpot for daring to review said crackpot's book negatively.
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August 21, 2007
Reminder
This being the slow month of August I'll be in and out with little rhyme or reason.
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August 19, 2007
August 18, 2007
Saturday Palate Cleanser
How high? That high!
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Explain, Please
A frequent commenter recently invited me to join "Facebook." I thought, what the heck. After a terrifying sign-up process I was asked to "poke" people.
That's when I gave up.
I'm doomed to never understand this modern world.
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To Hell With It
Nearly two years after the design of the United Flight 93 Memorial was changed to eliminate any perceived Islamic symbolism, the father of one of the people killed in the crash has asked that his son's name be withheld from the monument."It's something I'd rather not do, but I can't get anyone to listen," said Tom Burnett Sr., of Northfield, Minn. "In a sense, I'm asking for a call to action."
Mr. Burnett, who served on the Stage II jury that picked the winning design originally named "Crescent of Embrace," said that he raised his concerns about using a crescent-shaped grouping of red maple trees around the crash site then.
"It's almost as though it's intentional," he said. "This design should not invoke any Islamic impression of any sort."
[...]
But criticism, largely driven by online blogs, has continued.
Golly, if it appears on a blog then it's true!
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Make It Stop
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August 17, 2007
Interesting
"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," whose phony news coverage has long included phony "remotes" from war-torn Iraq, will be reporting from Iraq for real next week.Giving its green screen a temporary rest, the Comedy Central series will air "Operation Silent Thunder: `The Daily Show' in Iraq," several onsite dispatches filed by Senior War Correspondent Rob Riggle.
Riggle will provide what the network calls "in-depth coverage and insights from the front lines." Scheduled to be back in New York this weekend, he begins his reports as soon as Monday. ("The Daily Show" airs Monday through Thursday at 11 p.m. EDT.)
While in Iraq, Riggle performed for U.S. troops with fellow comedians Horatio Sanz, Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer as part of an entertainment tour titled "Operation Feel the Heat."
Besides "The Daily Show," Riggle's credits include "Saturday Night Live," "The Office" and "Arrested Development." A major in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, he served in Liberia, Kosovo and Afghanistan.
I can't wait for the Chickenhawks to squawk.
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As Cynical As I Am...
...I never saw this coming:
Korean War veteran Nyles Reed, 75, opened an envelope last week to learn a Purple Heart had been approved for injuries he sustained as a Marine on June 22, 1952.But there was no medal. Just a certificate and a form stating that the medal was "out of stock."
"I can imagine, of course, with what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, there's a big shortage," Reed said. "At least, I would imagine so."
That's right, the government has run out of Purple Hearts.
What more can be said?
[Via kos.]
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The Stupidest Man In The World
Via attaturk, the WaPo's David Broder chats:
Raleigh, N.C.: What do you think of turning to the Petraeus report? Is it already tainted?washingtonpost.com: An Early Clash Over Iraq Report (Post, Aug. 16)
David S. Broder: No. I expect him to be characteristically honest and balanced.
Except that Petraeus isn't actually going the write the thing.
At least "The Dean" admits he's a propagandist.
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From Bad To Worse
The search for six miners missing deep underground was abruptly halted after a second cave-in killed three rescue workers and injured at least six others who were trying to tunnel through rubble to reach them.
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Mawiage
Jenna and that Republican guy are getting married.
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A Frail Man
I never thought I'd be sympathetic towards John Ashcroft but:
"Saw AG," Mueller wrote in his timed log of the events on the evening of March 10, 2004. "Janet Ashcroft in the room. AG is feeble, barely articulate, clearly stressed." Ashcroft was in the hospital with pancreatitis.
These people are monsters.
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'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thoughtAnd as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back."And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
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August 16, 2007
You're Not Paranoid
Oh no, this won't be abused:
The Bush administration has approved a plan to expand domestic access to some of the most powerful tools of 21st-century spycraft, giving law enforcement officials and others the ability to view data obtained from satellite and aircraft sensors that can see through cloud cover and even penetrate buildings and underground bunkers.[...]
They could also have access to much more. A statement issued yesterday by the Department of Homeland Security said that officials envision "more robust access" not only to imagery but also to "the collection, analysis and production skills and capabilities of the intelligence community."
The beneficiaries may include "federal, state, local and tribal elements" involved in emergency preparedness and response or "enforcement of criminal and civil laws." The "tribal" reference was to Native Americans who conduct semiautonomous law enforcement operations on reservations.
Note that these satellites can see inside buildings such as your home.
Hall's group cited an "urgent need" for expanding sharing of remote sensing data to domestic groups other than scientific researchers. "Opportunities to better protect the nation are being missed," the report said.
Ah, there it is. This is being done for our protection! You know what else would protect us? Allowing law enforcement to enter any home at will and search it. And allowing the police to engage in summary execution of anybody thought to have committed a crime. That would certainly reduce crime and thus better protect us.
But fear not:
Oversight of the department's use of the overhead imagery data would come from officials in the Department of Homeland Security and from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and would consist of reviews by agency inspectors general, lawyers and privacy officers. "We can give total assurance" that Americans' civil liberties will be protected, Allen said. "Americans shouldn't have any concerns about it."
See? Michael Chertoff and Michael McConnell will personally make sure that there are no abuses of this terrific new power.
At any rate, as long as you're not doing anything wrong you have nothing to fear. Just ask Maher Arar.
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So Much For That
Since Congress and the punditocracy has vested everything - but everything - on September's report by Jesus Gen. David Petraeus this must be a disappointment:
Senior congressional aides said yesterday that the White House has proposed limiting the much-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill next month of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker to a private congressional briefing, suggesting instead that the Bush administration's progress report on the Iraq war should be delivered to Congress by the secretaries of state and defense.
Instead, everyone will have to listen to spinning from Condi and Bob Gates.
This latest, combined with yesterday's revelation that the report will be written by the White House, should inform everybody that it will be a whitewash. However, it will be likely that these inconvenient truths will be elided and we'll hear nothing but "stay the course!"
Unless the "news" media do their jobs.
Sorry, I made myself laugh with that last sentence.
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August 15, 2007
We'll Have Fun Fun Fun 'Till The TSA Takes Us Away
More airport fun hell:
Specially trained security personnel are watching body language and facial cues of passengers for signs of bad intentions. The watcher could be the attendant who hands you the tray for your laptop or the one standing behind the ticket-checker. Or the one next to the curbside baggage attendant.They're called Behavior Detection Officers, and they're part of several recent security upgrades, Transportation Security Administrator Kip Hawley told an aviation industry group in Washington last month. He described them as "a wonderful tool to be able to identify and do risk management prior to somebody coming into the airport or approaching the crowded checkpoint."
[...]
Behavior detection officers work in pairs. Typically, one officer sizes up passengers openly while the other seems to be performing a routine security duty. A passenger who arouses suspicion, whether by micro-expressions, social interaction or body language gets subtle but more serious scrutiny.
A behavior specialist may decide to move in to help the suspicious passenger recover belongings that have passed through the baggage X-ray. Or he may ask where the traveler's going. If more alarms go off, officers will "refer" the person to law enforcement officials for further questioning.
[...]
It faces high hurdles, however.
Different cultures express themselves differently. Expressions and body language are easy to misread, and no one's catalogued them all. Ekman notes that each culture has its own specific body language, but that little has been done to study each individually in order to incorporate them in a surveillance program.
It looks like Marcy experienced this first hand:
It worked like this: rather than mark my boarding pass for the "quiz about family's weird nicknaming habits" treatment, they put a big red X on it. A fellow who was clearly either supervising or waiting for some liberal schmo like me then met me after the metal detector and asked to search my bags. Which he did. So thoroughly that he read every single business card in my knapsack. Every single one.Meanwhile, a female TSA employee made like she was making small talk with me, asking why I was in DC, whether Libby was really guilty, what it was like to cover the trial, and so on. I could tell her job was, at least partly, to see whether my story accorded with the contents the male TSA guy was finding in my bag--but she was also, clearly, giving me some kind of psychological profile.
When I'm forced to interact in public with people I don't know at all it's in my nature to default to vague pleasantries and non-committal answers to questions. This could be interpreted as being evasive (which, in fact, it is though not for nefarious purposes). So what could go wrong?
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Headline Of The Day
Hunt under way for escaped snake
People living in a County Tyrone town are being alerted to the fact that a snake is on the loose.The Hogg Island Boa, which escaped from a house in the Dublin Road area of Omagh, is more than six-feet long and has the ability to change colour.
Where' that St. Patrick fella when you need him?
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Another (Non) Surprise
Something to think about as we await the coming of Jesus Gen. David Petraeus:
Despite Bush's repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government.
The LATimes has seen fit to bury this little gem in the 28th. paragraph.
Given that every politician and pundit in existence is banking on God's Petraeus' report this is a somewhat important revelation, no?
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Y'know...
...until the Chinese gets its shit together we ought to just ban their products. From toys to animal feed to toothpaste and beyond it's pretty clear that Chinese manufacturers don't have the ability or the desire to make safe products.
Ban them all.
Not that BushCo™ will ever do such a thing.
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...and baby's bottles and baby's bibs...
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It's TWOU! It's TWOU!
August 14, 2007
SCRAP THE "PATRIOT" ACT
Given Alberto Gonzales' record on state executions in Texas can anybody explain how this is a good idea?
The Justice Department is putting the final touches on regulations that could give Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales important new sway over death penalty cases in California and other states, including the power to shorten the time that death row inmates have to appeal convictions to federal courts.The rules implement a little-noticed provision in last year's reauthorization of the Patriot Act that gives the attorney general the power to decide whether individual states are providing adequate counsel for defendants in death penalty cases. The authority has been held by federal judges.
Under the rules now being prepared, if a state requested it and Gonzales agreed, prosecutors could use "fast track" procedures that could shave years off the time that a death row inmate has to appeal to the federal courts after conviction in a state court.
Again, check this first link for John Dean's overview of Abu's conduct when it comes to state killings. Does anybody outside of the White House think this is a good idea? And I should say that it is a bad idea regardless of president and Attorney General.
Now to the larger point: Every time we turn around we discover that there's another provision tucked into the "Patriot" Act that gives the Executive Branch authoritarian power. Let's remember that the scandal about the firing of US Attorneys came about because the act allowed the appointment of USA's without Senate approval. The act was even used to bust some corrupt local government officials. Hardly a case of terrorism.
The "Patriot" Act was intended to combat terrorism. It's clear, and has been for years, that the true intent of the law was to give the president as much power as possible over as much as possible.
Scrap the "Patriot" Act. Then maybe - maybe - we can start again to craft a bill to address the issue of terrorism. But for now, the act is merely enabling the president to engage in his own terrorism.
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This Will Come To Grief
A seriously bad idea:
Nasdaq is set to launch tomorrow what its executives are calling one of the most significant developments on Wall Street in decades -- a private stock market for super-wealthy investors.Minimum requirement for traders: $100 million in assets.
Any private firm can list on Nasdaq's new platform, which is called the Portal Market, and raise money by selling stock to an elite group of shareholders. These companies would remain private and not have to make public their financial statements or submit to federal regulation, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate accountability law.
Let's say this proves popular among the super-wealthy. Billions of dollars will be invested and there will be no accountability whatsoever. Sooner or later something will go wrong, either because of bad choices or outright fraud, this market will teeter, possibly start to fall, and because of the tremendous amount of money involved the government will have to step in and try to stop the collapse. With your money and mine.
I'm almost willing to bet on this happening.
In the end this is just another way to privatize profits and socialize the losses.
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Headline Of The Day
Japanese biker fails to notice missing leg
A Japanese biker failed to notice his leg had been severed below the knee when he hit a safety barrier, and rode on for 2 km (1.2 miles), leaving a friend to pick up the missing limb.The 54-year-old office worker was out on his motorcycle with a group of friends in the city of Hamamatsu, west of Tokyo, on Monday, when he was unable to negotiate a curve in the road and bumped into the central barrier, the Mainichi Shimbun said.
He felt excruciating pain, but did not notice that his right leg was missing until he stopped at the next junction, the paper quoted local police as saying.
The man and his leg were taken to hospital, but the limb had been crushed in the collision, the paper said.
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August 13, 2007
Bonus Tweety
Anyone who doesn't understand the insidious nature of sexual harrassment should take a look at the video of that exchange. Here you had a professional woman discussing a very serious and urgent subject on a news program. And Chris Matthews, (in an apparent attempt to disprove the fact that he has a sexual fetish for mature, beefy men) treated her like someone he was trying to pick up in a bar (very clumsily, as you would expect.) She was confused, embarrassed and knocked completely off balance by his inappropriate remarks, made all the worse because she was on the air. (It would have been just as wrong, however, if she'd been in a meeting or in a regular workplace conversation.) The woman was trying to do her job and this moron got all cute acting as if he couldn't hear a word she said. How "nice" of Matthews to make her feel and look like a fool in front of hundreds of thousands of people. I'm sure she really enjoyed that "compliment."
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Hee Hee
President Nicolas Sarkozy unexpectedly arrived alone for the informal gathering at a Bush family compound in Maine on Saturday, near the luxury lakeside residence where the French leader and his wife are spending their holidays.Sarkozy said his wife was suffering from a severe sore throat and could not make the journey, but the fact Cecilia was spotted shopping with friends on both Friday and Sunday raised eyebrows back home.
"Cecilia has set a new record for making a swift recovery," a news reader said dryly on France Inter radio on Monday.
Shorter Mme. Sarkozy: "Why would ah want to spend ze time weez zat babouin Américain?"
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Disturbed
I've said it before but the fact remains that Chris Matthews is in need of some serious psychological counseling.
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August 12, 2007
A Bit Of James MacNeill Whistler
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I Can't Imagine Why
We're dying earlier:
For decades, the United States has been slipping in international rankings of life expectancy, as other countries improve health care, nutrition and lifestyles.Countries that surpass the U.S. include Japan and most of Europe, as well as Jordan, Guam and the Cayman Islands.
[...]
A baby born in the United States in 2004 will live an average of 77.9 years. That life expectancy ranks 42nd, down from 11th two decades earlier, according to international numbers provided by the Census Bureau and domestic numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics.
It's also worth noting that of developed nations the US has the second worst infant mortality rate.
Yay us.
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