Three Brothers Bakery, a fine old family Jewish bakery about a block from my apartment, is the one remaining
building in my neighborhood with extensive damage from Hurricane Ike. It was supposed to reopen this month,
and there has been considerable progress restoring the interior, but it looks as if those delicious bagels and
breads and pastries will not be available for a while yet. And the sign... well, you can see for yourself.
This month, Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority in Herring v. United States, a 5-to-4 decision, took
a big step toward the goal he had discussed a quarter-century before. Taking aim at one of the towering legacies
of the Warren Court, its landmark 1961 decision applying the exclusionary rule to the states, the chief
justice’s majority opinion established for the first time that unlawful police conduct should not require the
suppression of evidence if all that was involved was isolated carelessness. That was a significant step in
itself. More important yet, it suggested that the exclusionary rule itself might be at risk.
The Herring decision “jumped a firewall,” said Kent Scheidegger, the general counsel of the Criminal Justice
Legal Foundation, a victims’ rights group. “I think Herring may be setting the stage for the Holy Grail,” he
wrote on the group’s blog, referring to the overruling of Mapp v. Ohio, the 1961 Warren Court decision.
...
Never, never think judges, even (especially) Supreme Court Chief Justices, rule based on the evidence and the
law (or the Constitution) alone. Roberts has been waiting from the day he was appointed by GeeDubya for a case
in which he could do this.
Now he's done it, by a 5-4 decision. Some police... not all of them, but enough... will use this ruling to
indulge in "isolated carelessness" to the detriment of defendants.
And the Bill of Rights just became a little bit smaller. Nothing to worry about, folks; if you're not a
criminal, the police would never do this to you; oh no, of course not...
Not that
this news
will change the amount of abuse and ridicule heaped upon Texans year after year by willfully ignorant people who
don't know any better, but many of us who have lived here for a decade or more have seen it coming for a long
time:
New numbers show Texas leaning Democratic
06:34 PM CST on Friday, January 30, 2009
By ELISE HU
KVUE News
A Gallup tracking poll released this week shows the nation swinging more Democratic, and the "Republican red"
state of Texas trending blue, too.
Texas now leans Democratic over Republican by 43 to 41 percent, according to Gallup. The polls shows
Texas to be one of the most evenly balanced states in partisan division.
...
As the article notes, there is much work to be done: all statewide offices are still held by Republicans. But
the gradual change in party identification among Texans, ongoing for at least a decade, has finally resulted in
a Democratic majority, albeit a small one.
Now for a bit of personal reckoning...
To all the bloggers who literally ran me off their sites in December 2000 when I responded to their Texas-blaming
rants with a polite note about this trend: Fuck you. Fuck you very much. Go to Hell and stay there. (No, you're
right: I'm not a forgiving sort of guy.)
To the rest of you who over the years expressed patience and sympathy while Texans got their act together:
Thank you. Thank you very much. Welcome, and thanks for your support through the hard times. Now we have some
work to do together.
... and of course the shadows of the fence, a wind chime, a couple of plants, a small bird sculpture on a metal
rod, the patio roof and one of the posts that hold the patio up...
A sunny day on the patio provides a multitude of shadowy playthings for an old cat who is just glad to be
outdoors for a while.
... a torture-loving fool?
John Yoo,
who appears in Jane Mayer's
book
to have a lot to answer for, possibly criminally, for his apparent authorship of the Bush administration's
infamous "torture memos," not to mention his being one of the strongest advocates of the doctrine of the
"unitary executive,"
slams Obama
for removing Bush's system of permitting torture
of detainees in the "war" on terror[ism].
I believe I've never seen such a sleaze-bag whine so self-righteously. With those tapes of his phone calls, how
could he imagine his impeachment would have any other result than his removal?
As Media Matters has documented, during the Bush administration, the media consistently allowed conservatives to
dominate their shows, booking them as guests far more often than progressives. The rationale was that
Republicans were “in power.”
It appears that old habits die hard. Even though President Obama and his team are in control of the executive
branch and Democrats are in the majority in Congress, the cable networks are still turning more often to
Republicans and allowing them to set the agenda on major issues, most recently on the debate over the economic
recovery package.
...
The media have been aiding their efforts. In a new analysis, ThinkProgress has found that the five cable news
networks — CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Business and CNBC — have hosted more Republican lawmakers to discuss the
plan than Democrats by a 2 to 1 ratio this week:
(chart) ...
Go view the chart. Follow the links (on the Think Progress site) if you need confirmation. Then tell me again
about the "librul media" ...
Why don't you give it up, and "move forward" (another of your favorite phrases) to the nation's exceedingly
urgent business?
When things get a little tougher, Mr. President, but the Democratic stimulus plan appears to be having an
effect, the 'publicans will beg you to get on board... all the while blaming you, of course, but they'll
beg all the same, because nothing succeeds like success.
Meanwhile... fuck 'em. You've got enough Democratic votes to do what must be done. And you know what must be
done. Do it!
Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side: the Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals
(see LibraryThing link in the right column), appeared in July in an
interview by Amy Goodman
on Democracy Now!
At around the same time, Mayer was also one of the people to whom
Scott Horton of Harper's Magazine
posed his typical Six Questions.
Even having read about half the book, I learned a lot from these two interviews. It is refreshing to find a
genuine investigative journalist out there. Mayer's work... not her own opinion, about which she is deliberately
vague, but rather the content of her narrative, based on thorough research... leads me to believe even more
strongly that Cheney et al must be indicted and prosecuted for war crimes.
Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet, Consectetur Adipiscing Elit
...Suspendisse et magna.
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volutpat. Nunc nunc nisi, lobortis et, dapibus sed, placerat sed, tortor. Donec quis sapien sed neque vestibulum
consectetur. Quisque sed urna. Nulla facilisi. Quisque molestie pretium est. Nunc et massa. Duis tortor.
Suspendisse porta ipsum sit amet tortor porttitor eleifend. Vestibulum tempor. Cras hendrerit mi ut velit.
Aenean quis nisi ac nulla consequat posuere. Nunc sagittis mauris iaculis lectus. Aenean vitae elit. Nulla
mauris. Morbi sit amet magna at massa placerat consequat. Aenean tincidunt ante non mi dapibus imperdiet.
Quisque dui purus, malesuada ut, cursus ut, cursus sit amet, diam. Vivamus nisl pede, venenatis at, dapibus sit
amet, dapibus eget, dolor. Suspendisse massa tortor, bibendum id, pharetra sit amet, rhoncus non, velit. Cras et
orci. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Fusce hendrerit
diam non nisi. Suspendisse euismod adipiscing nisl. Maecenas congue ultricies nulla. Curabitur magna neque,
pharetra ut, euismod id, porta quis, erat. Suspendisse consequat.
(I feel as if I ought to stop right there and generate some sort of template for posts that begin "Dems Cave"
... because I can't help thinking there will be a lot of them. This time, it's...)
... on family planning funding.
As usual, the cave will primarily affect poor women. As usual, there's no good reason for the cave, except that
Republicans are whining, and Obama wants to appear "post-partisan."
Apparently, Obama has already spoken with Rep. Henry Waxman, who chairs the committee that covers Medicaid,
on the desired cave. You know, I could grow tired of this behavior in a hurry.
Conyers subpoenas Karl Rove... again...
to talk about the U.S. Attorney firing scandal. Last time, Rove refused on grounds of executive privilege. This
time? Stay tuned...
A Medicare patient who goes to one of the hospitals in the top 5 percent in the country has a 27 percent
lower chance of dying than one who goes to another hospital, according to a new study.
The report by HealthGrades.com looked at patients with common conditions and estimated that more than
150,000 deaths could have been prevented from 2005 to 2007.
"This study echoes others that have found distinct quality gaps between top-performing hospitals and
others," said Dr. Rick May, an author of the study.
...
Now the real question: why?
A millennium of CO2:
Even an immediate reduction in emission of heat-trapping gases will not reverse the problems of
"Dust-Bowl-like droughts for at least a thousand years."
You've got mail:
After a full day down, the White House email servers are running again. I read elsewhere that the problem
was a Microsoft Exchange server. Anybody surprised?
It was soooo bad... well, why don't I just let
Jon Perr of Crooks and Liars
tell you in excruciating detail, and with a nice chart to go along with the facts.
But there's more: As Perr points out, it's not just Bush. It's every Republican president since Eisenhower, vs.
every Democratic president since Kennedy. And that's by just about every economic measure... Main Street, Wall
Street, jobs, income, profits, growth, you-name-it.
Memorize this simple fact. Tattoo it on your forearm, and look at it every four years just before presidential
elections:
... and other specious arguments
against Obama's emerging stimulus package. Read for good advice on how to identify the bullshit.
Let me add a bit of debunking of my own, because I've seen this one pulled by a couple of 'publicans on TV
recently: If anyone starts to give advice on the federal economy by telling you how they would handle a
shortfall in their family bank account, shout BULLSHIT! at the top of your lungs. The federal budget is
not the family budget, nor is the federal treasury the family bank account, nor are they remotely similar. And
the federal deficit, unlike a household's or individual's debt, is a tool to be employed in addressing the worst
extremes of the business cycle. Anyone who did not learn this from the Great Depression, particularly the
episode in 1937 in which the country nearly fell back into depression from a premature attempt to resume
balancing the budget, is impaired by either ideology or greed... or, in the case of many GOPers in Congress
today, both.
Our economy faces a really bad problem. Fortunately, we have a template in recent history that gives us some
idea what must be done... and what must not be done... to solve the problem. Unfortunately, we have an
otherwise very satisfactory President who for some reason wants to appear to be "post-partisan," by
which he means inclusive of the very people who are responsible for the bad problem in the first place,
accommodative of their desires for large and almost certainly ineffective tax cuts rather than stimulus spending
on infrastructure, etc. It is up to us to press Obama to put an end to the craziness, no matter what anyone
thinks of the process politically.
(For a similar assertion about how Obama must act, read
Robert Kuttner's
column on HuffPo.)
Afterthought: on a different but related subject, you may want to read
Robert Reich
on Wall Street's lobbying of Congress regarding (among many other things) the TARP II bailout money...
using the TARP I money to pay the lobbyists. You know, if a novelist made this up, we'd accuse him or her
of straining credulity. [Corrected "using the TARP II money" to "using the TARP I money".)
Politico's Mike Allen
informs us that Bill Kristol's time is up as a New York Times columnist, but he is gaining a monthly column in
the Washington Post.
So, NYT, that didn't work out for you? Having a radical "conservative" columnist who had trouble getting his
facts straight
didn't help you sell papers to an American public fed up with the nut-jobs? Well, if Bill's too much for the
Times (so to speak), perhaps he's just right for the Post partisan era.
("Go, Crystal Tears" is a sad, sad song by the great Elizabethan-Jacobean English songwriter
John Dowland.)
Has your week been too upbeat since Obama's inauguration? Have you found yourself occasionally thinking America
may yet be saved? that the mean bastards who, until recently, ruled our country like despots have been
defeated?
Warning: if you read this book, be prepared to find your foot itching for impact with Dick Cheney's posterior.
And John Yoo's. And David Addington's. And of course GeeDubya's, though Dub's arrogance is such an ignorant
arrogance that if it weren't for his megalomania, one might almost feel sorry for the stupid bastard. Almost.
Seriously: I am about ¼ of the way through this book, and it is powerful. Even as long as it is, it is
concisely written, to the point and clearly thoroughly researched. It details what can only be called a
successful coup, a triumphant revolt against fundamental American principles, a deliberate destruction of all
aspects of open, representative and internationally responsible government, a revolt unprecedented since our
nation's founding. If you ever had even the least inclination to agree with Obama that we must "move forward" by
not prosecuting these unapologetic fascists, reading this book will disabuse you of that notion. The rule of
law has to count for something, or else America is nothing.
Robert Reich
explains how that is our new system: Anything sweet goes to the big-time capitalists. As for the lemons...
especially those that need bailouts... we taxpayers get to suck on those.
Welcome to post-Republican America! Here's your lemon; now bend over...
Well, isn't that special... if you have to ask the price, you surely can't afford it! Actually,
El Pueblito Place
is a very moderately priced Mexican and Guatemalan restaurant, with good food and generous portions, and a
pleasant patio on which to dine... though you wouldn't know about the moderate prices by the missing price on
this sign.
You know all those solemn chords from Gabriela Montero's piano in the John Williams "Simple Gifts" quartet
performed at the inauguration? those splendid tones from Itzy and Yo-Yo and Anthony ringing out across the
crowd?
Well...
It was not precisely lip-synching, but pretty close.
The somber, elegiac tones before President Obama’s oath of office at the inauguration on Tuesday came from the
instruments of Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and two colleagues. But what the millions on the Mall and watching on
television heard was in fact a recording, made two days earlier by the quartet and matched tone for tone by the
musicians playing along.
The players and the inauguration organizing committee said the arrangement was necessary because of the extreme
cold and wind during Tuesday’s ceremony. The conditions raised the possibility of broken piano strings, cracked
instruments and wacky intonation minutes before the president’s swearing in (which had problems of its own).
...
(Sigh.)
Not that I blame them... performing outdoors in really cold weather is one of the most challenging and
physically uncomfortable things a musician can be required to do.
But I once saw Janos Starker play the Dvorak cello concerto in Grant Park (Chicago), under the shell but in the
pouring rain... never missing a note, and with flawless intonation... and it wasn't taped in advance. I recall
reading somewhere that in the original performance of Messiaen's
Quartet for the End of Time,
written and performed while Messiaen was held in a German prison camp in W.W. II, the cellist had only three
strings; no replacements were available. I was present when a friend's gut violin string broke in the middle of
an obbligato to a cantata sung by a world-famous baritone; the friend quickly changed the string and resumed in
mid-phrase.
Musicians are required, again and again, to face adversity head-on and overcome it. And no musician I know likes
syncing with tape; I've been forced on one occasion to do it myself, about a hundred times in a row, while a
camera crew did endless retakes of the dance taking place onstage with us. In the case of the quartet at the
inauguration, I can't help wondering if the decision to use tape was made, not by the musicians themselves, but
by the inaugural committee.
Yes, of course, the committee spokeswoman inserted into her statement a reference to Milli Vanilli; did you
really expect her to be less crude about it? At least the quartet was syncing to its own recording.
On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we are reminded that this decision not only protects women’s health and
reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private
family matters. I remain committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose.
While this is a sensitive and often divisive issue, no matter what our views, we are united in our determination
to prevent unintended pregnancies, reduce the need for abortion, and support women and families in the choices
they make. To accomplish these goals, we must work to find common ground to expand access to affordable
contraception, accurate health information, and preventative services.
On this anniversary, we must also recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same
rights and opportunities as our sons: the chance to attain a world-class education; to have fulfilling careers
in any industry; to be treated fairly and paid equally for their work; and to have no limits on their dreams.
That is what I want for women everywhere.
This is really simple. Don't approve of abortion? Don't have an abortion; nobody's forcing you to do so...
this isn't China. But don't attempt to impose the specifics of your conservative theology on women who disagree
with you on principle... or who have the misfortune to encounter serious medical problems during pregnancy... or
who face grinding poverty if their family expands by one more child. For those women, it's their choice, not
yours.
Don't like that? I recommend you move to Austria: the Alps are beautiful, the desserts are rich, and at least
when I was there 30 years ago, there was no serious line of demarcation between the government and the Catholic
Church. But wherever you go... leave American women alone. A woman's own choice is a woman's fundamental right.
What else could one call the Republican Party, when a great majority of their senators in the Judiciary Committee are openly
delaying Eric Holder's confirmation
because he will not unequivocally rule out prosecutions of former Bush administration
officials for engaging in torture?
Never mind that torture is illegal, immoral and ineffective in
obtaining information; apparently, GOPers on Judiciary (except for Lindsay Graham) see their function as
protecting their own, including the worst of the worst among them... no matter what they have done.
The notion that the confirmation of a nominee for AG, a judgeship, or any similar
position involving the legal system should be conditioned on a promise to prosecute or not prosecute specific
cases, or in the case of judges, to deliver certain rulings in cases, is nothing less than unethical... in other
words, it is a characteristic GOPer tactic.
I have only this to say to them: Senators, your blocking of this nomination does not count as
"moving forward"; it is better described as "covering your asses." I think you need to change your
breakfast cereal. Here, senators, have a bowl of Moral Fiber™; it's guaranteed to make things
move...
... was not quite as good as the day of the inauguration. But the things I objected to... e.g., a five percent
hike in my rent, and my decision after much agonizing to renew my exorbitant private medical insurance for one
more month... are not, in and of themselves, matters of national concern, but rather symptoms of the flagrant
mismanagement of the previous administration. So I will spare you the details. Suffice it to say that Paul Simon
got it right when he sang, "I need a photo opportunity / I need a shot of redemption..."
Did anyone else laugh aloud when they found out that David Vitter and Jim Demented were the two votes against
Hillary Clinton's confirmation as Secretary of State?
... was, on the whole, a very good day in the history of our nation. How good? That remains to be determined.
But whatever you may think, and whatever we may find, about President Obama, there is no doubt that the day
George W. Bush left office is a better day than the day he took office eight years ago. His departure, in and
of itself, is enough to make this a very good day.
I just spent two or three hours watching the rest of the inauguration on TV. The parade was pleasant if boring;
the military bands were excellent as they always are;
occasional good news was reported regarding Sen. Kennedy, not too many overzealous pundits made Highly
Significant Remarks about the challenges Obama faces, and the Goya chocolate-flavored Marias I was munching on
(product of Mexico) had just the right flavor and texture. After reading some of the
experiences
recounted on Firedoglake and other sites, I found my answer to the question asked by my host, the octogenarian
Democrat, of whether I would like to have been at the inauguration in person: no. Staying home was
unquestionably the correct decision.
I am beginning to feel annoyed and occasionally outright angered at the frequency with which people of all
political stripes, but especially unabashed liberals like me, seem unwilling to give Obama even a few days'
slack to accomplish the cleanup of a mess that took at least eight years... and arguably longer than that... to
create. Good grief... it is traditional to evaluate a new president on the first 100 days of his term, but many
people seem unwilling to cut Obama even 10 days' slack, or even one day. "Why isn't Gitmo closed yet? What
about torture? Why has he allowed GOPers to interfere with seating his Cabinet instantly? I told you the guy
isn't a progressive!" and so on.
Of course he isn't a progressive, let alone a liberal. If he were, it is very likely he would not have been
elected. Would you have preferred four years of McCain/Barbie? This is not a new progressive era, at least not
yet. I am not urging progressives to sit back and wait, but I am urging them to act rationally, to require only
everything possible. So far, many seem in a hurry to demand the impossible.
And as I write this, the guy has been in office for 5 6 hours and 39 minutes. Is Obama supposed to have a
record of accomplishment like that of FDR, JFK, LBJ etc. after only a few hours in office?
I have some criticisms of Obama's announced plans, and some suggestions for modifying them. I will not be shy
about tossing those brickbats when the time comes. But good grief, people... I think we should give the guy a
fuckin' break, at least until our complaints are attached to specific actions (or inactions) on Obama's part.
Maybe we could wait until the day after the inauguration...
I'm posting this a few minutes before the oath is administered, to give me time to go to the apartment of our
octogenarian Democratic neighbor. Stella has to work today, but was able to take the small portable TV she uses
during hurricanes. Notwithstanding the "storm" our nation is in at the moment, I think this is a much happier
use for that little box.
Rep. Steve King (R-IA), that is. He refuses to participate in the Iowa congressional delegation's celebration
today in Washington. Here's
Think Progress
quoting
Jane Norman of IowaPolitics:
That’s right, four — not all five [of the Iowa delegation]. U.S. Rep. Steve King, a Kiron Republican known for
his warning that the election of Barack Obama would lead to terrorists “dancing in the streets,” declined to
participate, according to congressional aides.
King said in an interview that he would have had to use money from his campaign fund to pay for the cookies and
coffee to be offered up at the reception and he didn’t think it was an appropriate use for the money. “It’s not
anti-anybody,” he said. “My disagreements with Barack Obama have never been anything but philosophical.”
Right... no hard feelings, I'm sure. But if you dance in the streets, King will send
Cujo
after you...
1/19, 9:12pm CT: Having located an alternate (apparently German-made) Pete Seeger video to replace the
pulled HBO YouTube (see below), I email the link to
TPM.
1/19, 9:43pm CT: that alternate Pete Seeger video
appears on TPM.
Thanks or at least acknowledgement appears in my inbox or on their site: never.
It's OK, guys; I know you're busy. But so was I ...
No, not in that sense; Cheney would never, ever retreat. (We can only wish.) No, Cheney has done the one thing
he possibly could have done to gain my actual sympathy: he
pulled a muscle in his back
while moving boxes. Coming from a family of men with bad backs, as I do, I can't help wincing at the thought of
what Cheney may be going through. Of course, it's probably best not to ask what those boxes contained, or
whether they should rightfully have been on their way to the National Archives. Or maybe he's practicing for the
lead role in a remake of
Bob Roberts...
Cheney will be in a wheelchair when he attends the inauguration. It's amazing what having good medical insurance
allows one to do. As of 2007,
46 million Americans didn't have any medical insurance...
and soon enough it may
be 46 million and one. Yep, I'm about to lose mine. And yes, I resent it. Heckuva job, Bushie and Dickie.
This post was inspired by the blogger
'No. 44' of Swiftspeech,
posting regarding "party time in Washington": i.e., the apparently excessive cost of Obama's inauguration
festivities. The claim one finds on many MSM sites, e.g., that of
CNN,
is that the total cost of Obama's celebration is $150 million, the most expensive inauguration ever.
By contrast, Bush's inauguration is claimed (e.g., by MSNBC's Tamron Hall on Jan. 18; see the Media Matters
link below) to have cost only $40 million. CNN grudgingly admits none of this is nailed down:
The reason it's hard to know how much this - or any of the other 55 presidential inaugurals - costs is that
there's no one entity overseeing all of the related events. The $150 million is an estimate, and it is compiled
from other estimates, so the figure is fluid.
There's just one problem:
The cost reported for Bush omits the cost of security, law enforcement, etc.; the cost reported for Obama
includes those government-provided services.
Why the change in methodology in calculating total cost? As far as I can tell... the change is solely for the
purpose of being able to claim that Obama's inauguration is exorbitantly expensive compared to past
inaugurations including Bush's.
Did you really think that the right-wing noise machine's gross dishonesty would cease, just because the election
is over?
In a just world, Dr. King would have lived to see tomorrow's inauguration. We still do not have a just world;
too many people are still pouring their energies and resources into preventing justice for too many other
people. But the rest of us still have hopes, and those hopes are by no means irrational.
I have to note how far we've come. I went to school in segregated schools, all the way through high school;
my first African American classmate was a woman in my freshman class in college. My livelihood as an IT
professional was about as monolithically white as it gets, until some time in the 1990s. Both of those things
have changed... imperfectly, to be sure; I'm not trying to pretend that racial bias or discrimination has
disappeared... but the improvement is very real for a great number of people. Among the beneficiaries are white
males like me, whose benefit in human terms in interacting with intelligent and capable people of diverse
backgrounds different from my own is valuable beyond measure. Perhaps, one day, Dr. King's dream and
President-elect Obama's hope will be realized to such an extent that there will be no more "hyphenated
Americans," just... Americans. Until that happy day, we need the talents and commitment of each and every one of
us: there is much work to be done.
As one reads
Dr. King's biography,
one realizes his contribution was much more than one speech. He was a community leader in the best sense; it is
easy to see why President-elect Barack Obama, himself a community leader in earlier years, is emphasizing King's
birthday (observed) as a national day of service. It is also easy to see that King was one leader among many,
both in his time and in a succession of African American leaders to this very day.
As one who reads nearly ceaselessly, I'll conclude with a list of books from my personal library that have been
invaluable in shaping my understanding of the Civil Rights Movement and the experiences of racial minorities
in America. There's nothing special about this list, or these books, or the order in which I list them
(alphabetical); they are the ones I've come across over the years. I hope you will read and appreciate some of
them:
Douglass, Frederick. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.
Franklin, John Hope and Genna Rae McNeil. African Americans and the Living Constitution.
Guinier, Lani. Lift Every Voice.
Guinier, Lani. The Tyranny of the Majority.
Kluger, Richard. Simple Justice.
Lewis, John. Walking With the Wind.
Petry, Ann. Harriet Tubman.
Terkel, Studs. Race.
Stanton, Mary. Freedom Walk: Mississippi or Bust.
Much of what I've read about the Civil Rights Movement (including all I've read about MLK Jr. himself) I
obtained from the public library, and regrettably I have not kept a list. Nor am I listing the myriad works of
music, art, literature and poetry, nor the biographies of musicians; any one of them deserves a blog post
itself. All I hope to do here is remind everyone... as if you needed reminding... of the sheer richness of the
diversity of Americans, how much we need each other and how much we have to offer each other. For all the chaos
and hatred and greed around us, I think Dr. King would be pleased to see in Barack Obama's election the
recognition by a majority of involved Americans of that need and that offering of self. Rest in peace, Dr. King;
we're not to your Promised Land of racial equality and justice yet, but we're clearly heading in that direction.
... to the New York island (and don't forget Hawaii, though I'll forgive you if you forget Alaska this time):
UPDATE: HBO has pulled the goddamned video, claiming copyright. UPDATE: I think this German video will do it. (Oh, the irony!)
Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, and a couple of other well-known people (including one in the audience named
*ahem* Barack *ahem*), at the Lincoln Memorial. If your blood runs red, white and blue, I'll be
surprised if this performance doesn't bring a tear to your eye.
(Watch it full-screen for best effect... click the control that looks a bit like an American flag.)
Is the Bush White House lying about the virtues of its own actions? Perish the thought! Actually, just perish
the Bush White House in a couple of days...
I suppose it's about time for a "good riddance GeeDubya" post. But there's hardly any need for me to write one,
as Dan Froomkin
has cataloged and summarized the Bush-booting posts of practically everybody who's anybody. Read and enjoy (if
that's the right word); the conclusions of journalists left and right are almost universally negative. And how
could they be otherwise, considering William Rivers Pitt's
laundry list of Bush's offenses
in his nearly undisputed role as Worst. President. Ever.
I am reminded of an incident early in Bush's first term (July 4, 2001) in which writer Bill Hangley Jr.
encountered Bush at some sort of photo-op publicizing his faith-based programs. (Here is
Hangley's original email
about the incident;
here is his
Salon article
about it three years later.) Here's the short version: Hangley, required by his job to be in the handshake line,
told Bush he was disappointed in him; Bush kept shaking Hangley's hand and replied with a smile, "Who cares
what you think?"
And as of noon Tuesday, that will be exactly my sentiment about Bush (and Cheney):
WHO CARES WHAT YOU THINK?
Fuck Bush, and the horse he rode in on... or would have, if he could ride. Or walk. Or use a SegWay, or ride a
bicycle, or speak in complete sentences, or eat pretzels...
Meanwhile, there seems to be
endlessrumination
among Republicans about how to fix their party. Here's a clue for them: right now, nobody gives a damn
if that wretched org goes straight to hell. What the GOP and its "leaders" ... I use the word with
reservation... have done to America and the world in the last eight years deserves the institutional death
penalty.
The "party of Lincoln" has been gone for a long time, and its remains are mighty damned ugly. Flush it down the
crapper and move on.
"Whatever Miss T eats turns into Miss T,"
so Tabitha is hoping to turn the tamales (and chili and salsa and
whatever else is on Stella's plate) into Miss Tabitha...
Actually, Tabitha knows there's not a chance of her getting tamales (they probably wouldn't be good for her),
but if she hangs around long enough, she'll probably get some kitty treats. Meanwhile, she really enjoys
sitting on Mama Stella's lap.
(Posted early so Stella can see it before her work-week bedtime.)
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Don't Mince Words: It Was Torture
Dahlia Lithwick and Phillipe Sands of Slate
lead us through the implications of
Bob Woodward's interview of Susan J. Crawford,
convening authority of military commissions and therefore the reviewer of everything done at Guantanamo,
in which Crawford calls U.S. treatment of detainees "torture," straight out, no hedging. From Woodward's
account of the interview:
"We tortured [Mohammed al-]Qahtani," said Susan J. Crawford, in her first interview since being named convening
authority of military commissions by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in February 2007. "His treatment met the
legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution.
Lithwick's and Sands's conclusion is chilling, namely, that a bright line has been crossed:
...
The former chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and general counsel for the
Department of the Army has spoken. Her clear words have been picked up around the world. And that takes the
prospects of accountability and criminal investigation onto another level. For the Obama administration, the
door to the do-nothing option is now closed. That is why today may come to be seen as the turning point.
Does Obama understand his new obligation? Will he act on it?
Intelligence Court Rules Wiretapping Program Legal
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: January 15, 2009
WASHINGTON — A federal intelligence court, in a rare public opinion, is expected to issue a major ruling
validating the power of the president and Congress to wiretap international phone calls and intercept e-mail
messages without a court order, even when Americans’ private communications may be involved, according to a
person with knowledge of the opinion.
The court decision, made in December by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, is expected to be
disclosed as early as Thursday in an unclassified, redacted form, the person said. The review court has issued
only two other rulings in its 30-year history.
The decision marks the first time since the disclosure of the National Security Agency’s warrantless
eavesdropping program three years ago that an appellate court has addressed the constitutionality of the federal
government’s wiretapping powers. In validating the government’s wide authority to collect foreign intelligence,
it may offer legal credence to the Bush administration’s repeated assertions that the president has
constitutional authority to act without specific court approval in ordering national security eavesdropping.
...
The Fourth Amendment is dead, murdered by a secret court whose workings... indeed, whose rulings... we are
typically not permitted to see or even know about. In the name of "security," that secret court has rendered
your "persons, houses, papers, and effects" vulnerable to secret monitoring, at the order of a president,
without authorization by a court on a case-by-case basis.
Apparently, the decision was made in December... a merry fucking Christmas to us all, from the government of our
surveillance state, and especially to Bush and Cheney, who without this ruling could possibly face charges of
abdicating their sworn obligation to the Constitution.
Is there any aspect of our current government that is not owned in its entirety by de facto
totalitarians?
And... will that change on January 20?
UPDATE 1/16: this is a big deal. Thanks to Constance Reader in
comments,
we have the following from
Glenn Greenwald
on 1/15:
...
Earlier today, The New York Times' Eric Lichtblau (one of the NYT reporters who originally broke the NSA story
yet often mindlessly recites false Bush claims even on this issue) wrote a story which reported that the FISA
Court of Review had issued a decision "validating the power of the president and Congress to wiretap
international phone calls and intercept e-mail messages without a specific court order." From start to finish,
Lichtblau's description of the ruling was muddled and contradictory, even nonsensical in some places.
Nonetheless, it was crystal clear even from Lichtblau's poorly written story that the court's ruling had nothing
whatsoever to do with whether Bush acted legally or properly when he ordered warrantless eavesdropping on
Americans from 2001-2006, when warrantless eavesdropping was a felony under FISA. To the contrary, as I
explained earlier today (here) -- and as Talk Left's Armando and Anonymous Liberal (both lawyers) also detailed
-- the FISA court was addressing a totally different and much narrower question: namely, whether the
warrantless eavesdropping which Congress authorized in the 2007 Protect America Act was prohibited by the Fourth
Amendment's warrant requirement.
...
It looks as if we have once again been misled into buying a substantially false version of events because it
was published in a mainstream publication. My apologies, to the extent that my post misled readers; there isn't
much ordinary bloggers can do about gross negligence by the MSM.
Better the occasional faults of a government that lives
in a spirit of charity than the constant omissions of a
government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
- FDR
I belong to the Democratic Party wing of the Democratic Party.
- Paul Wellstone
I am a Democrat without prefix, without suffix, and without apology.
- Sam Rayburn
"Me...
Well, isn't that special... if you have to ask the price, you surely can't afford it! Actually,
Samantha, in her gravest Mien,
PRESIDENT
MYSTERY/THRILLER...
I suppose it's about time for a "good riddance GeeDubya" post. But there's hardly any need for me to write one,
as 
