A Spork in the Drawer

I'm Confused

Cardinals upset Steelers, 21-14

Pirates fall short in finale to Cardinals, 6-5

How can the Cardinals play two sports at the same time?

.

Hoover

As we descend into a national surveillance state it’s helpful to remember that we’ve been here before. From the Alien and Sedition Acts of John Adams through the first Red Scare to the second Red Scare to our current fear of terrorism and immigrants paranoia is a signal, if largely unnoted, aspect of our country.

Kenneth D. Ackerman looks at the first Red Scare and finds a monster being born:

John Edgar Hoover kept his desk clean, it’s glass-covered mahogany surface polished, and he gave everything he touched a sense of order.

Neat. Orderly. Hoover wanted the United States to be just like him. (Would it be going too far to compare Hoover to Adolph Eichmann? Maybe. But both sought to make the trains run on time. Let's call it a difference of degree.)

John Edgar quickly learned the ways of power. This is the point: Nobody gave Hoover power, he created it on his own.

Ackerman recounts:

They chose to send a message...they came armed with clubs, police backup, and over two hundred Labor Department deportation warrants naming the leaders of the Union of Russian Workers….

The Department of Justice as well as courts at all levels handed out warrants like candy. The focus was immigrants.

Is there another John Edgar Hoover in our government today? No.

We’ve become a more subtle people. We allow ourselves to be violated by degrees.

This is how today’s John Edgar Hoover prefers it.

.

A Must Read

Newsweek:

Since the fatal Sept. 16 Blackwater USA shooting in Baghdad’s Nasoor Square, officials from the private security company have insisted that their guards were responding to fire from “armed enemies.” Yet an extensive evidence file put together by the Iraqi National Police and obtained by NEWSWEEK—including documents, maps, sworn witness statements and police video footage—appears to contradict the contractors’ version of events. A confidential incident report, which has been provided by Iraqi National Police investigators to American military and civilian officials, concludes that the Blackwater vehicles “opened fire crazily and randomly, without any reason.”

Watch the video. And remember that the helicopter isn't US military (or Iraqi military - if such a thing exists.) but a mercenary helicopter.

Coming soon to a town near you.

.

A Bit Of Saul Steinberg

Self-portrait, 1948-49

.

There's A War On

Via Attaturk:

Army of Dude

Why? Why is Limbaugh beloved by millions?

Why?

.

Headline Of The Day

Iran: CIA a 'Terrorist Organization'

1953? Sixteenth paragraph.

.

Saturday Palate Cleanser

Some Betty Boop for your asses:

.

Through The Transom

Making a better world:

Taliban suicide blast in Kabul kills 30

18 killed in sectarian violence in Iraq

.

As If We Don't Have Enough To Worry About

Health Officials Worry About Deadly Amoebas

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!

.

Yep

John Dean:

And how does Bush compare with the Republicans seeking to succeed him? "If a Rudy Giuliani were to be elected," Dean said, "he would go even farther than Cheney and Bush in their worst moments."

[...]

I asked Dean to imagine the moment when Bush leaves office on Jan. 20, 2009, presumably to be replaced by a Democrat, presumably Hillary -- will it then be possible to say "our long national nightmare is over"? Dean replied with one word: "Yes."

He quickly added, "I do feel strongly that the Republicans have so abused the law and embedded so many people within the system, within the executive branch, that's it's going to take a couple of terms of Democratic presidents before you have people there who are representing the American people."

I too have been saying for a while now that a Rudy! presidency would make us wish for the sanity of BushCheney.

Hell of a country we live in.

.