Happy dance time.
This report confirms what I’ve been hearing, that even the moneybags have stopped giving.
Here’s a clue: the 19th century ideas don’t work in the 21st century.
Month: February 2008
The US Is Intent on Pursuing a Child on War Crimes Prosecutions
He was 15 years old when arrested, and the US government, and the US military is determined to prosecute Omar Khadr, who was 15 when he was apprehended by US forces.
Khadr is charged in the Guantanamo war court with murder, attempted murder, conspiring with al Qaeda, providing material support for terrorism and spying by conducting surveillance of U.S. military convoys in Afghanistan. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Kuebler argued that U.S. and international law assume that children involved in an armed conflict are not there voluntarily, because they lack the experience and judgment to understand the risk of joining armed forces. Defense attorneys contend that any charges against Khadr should be pursued in a civilian court in a juvenile system where the goal is rehabilitation rather than punishment.
This is repugnant beyond belief. It refutes the principles upon which the republic was supposed to be founded, and it makes us less safe, because this war crime, and it is a war crime, inspires other people to become Jihadi.
Mr. Straight Talk Weasels out of Public Financing Limits
Yep, he’s opted out after opting in.
Mark Schmitt has a fairly detailed analysis of the legalities, and it basically comes down as follows:
- There has been an advisory ruling that candidates can change their mind until they actually receive the matching funds.
- He took out a loan for his campaign, but it was not contingent on matching funds, and he is not in the position of renouncing, “an asset if it’s entangled in another transaction”.
- Because there is no quorum for the FEC, there can be no rulings.
So he appears legal, although he also appears to be a hypocrite.
Posted Without Comment
Federal Judge to Bush: “Because I Said So” Is not a Valid Legal Argument
Basically, this means that George W. Bush cannot invalidate a court ruling through executive order, at least for now.
An appeal is certain.
An Update to the Site
For the time being, at least, I’ve added the delegate count widgets for both parties to the bottom of the left column from MyDD.
A Friend Sent Me This
Shout out to Bob.
I think that this is a good analysis of what is at stake:
Howdy Folks!
I have been asked “the question” of this election year, am I for Clinton or Obama.
My perspective abhors those who make a fetish of decrying the good in favor of the perfect.
The criticism most often leveled at me is that by taking this stance, I cut off the possibility for achieving the heights needed to truly make a difference.
I feel uncomfortable bragging, but I have an intellect that at least allows me to perceive the ideals and aspirations that great thinkers put out there for consideration if not understand them completely. My heart tugs me in that direction.
However, belonging to a minority group where the glass ceiling is so low we have to get down on our hands and knees to crawl under it, tells me that defeat now is not an option. That glass ceiling is lowering and crushing the life out of millions.
My experience also tells me that the too oft disparaged “half a loaf” has kept me and millions like me going for most of my life.
The promise of three quarters of a loaf leaving leftovers in the breadbox to inspire a more peaceful nights sleep is not to be turned away from lightly.
Again, on examination, the positions taken by Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama are not that different. It’s just the rhetoric and rhetoric doesn’t pay the bills.
Whoever wins will enforce the civil rights acts and all the other laws and regulations that Bush and his cronies have broken, soiled laws and regulations that Bush and his cronies have broken, soiled and degraded. They will fight an effective war on terrorists using the broad panaply of tools we have that will also restore our self respect, democratic principles and standing around the world and put us on a progressive path towards the future.
Neither one will usher in nirvana, but any Republican will almost certainly doom us to failure and misery for generations.
I will support the nominee of the Democratic Party and even send in my paltry sum of money to help out. More importantly, I know where there is a Democratic Party phone bank that I can volunteer at when the time comes. My lady and I will make dates out of it.
I’m not so much for the nomination of Mrs. Clinton as I am for the nominee winning the Presidency.
Fox News awaits the nominee though.
Fox News and all that Fox News has come to stand for. The legion of right wing enterprises funded by malignant corporate interests, religious nuts and idle, bitter billionaires sucking the marrow of long dead Robber Barons.
Swift Boats will be launched from their pens. Fueled by greed, hatred and sheer self entitled hubrs. Drudge will be drudged up and repeated millions of times as if true. Fair and Balanced panels will be showcased on every hand with screaming fanatics getting the most air and last word from sycophants seeking to keep their ratings and incomes.
Then, of course, there’s Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and their myriad incestuous spawn.
Mrs. Clinton’s negatives and “divisiveness” have been overhyped. Polls and, more importantly election results have shown that these are the result of listening to the GOP and the too cozy media’s confection. Mr. Obama’s negatives have hardly been mentioned. Of course the people who hate the anything “Clinton” will hate Clinton. They’ll hate Obama too; just as hard too, don’t kid yourself.
I’ve heard it said that Mrs. Clinton can’t best Mr. Kerry’s last electoral outing. This forgets the GOP’s wonderfully Just position, displayed for all to see in it’s natural ugliness.
They are historically weak, which needs to be exploited. Not forgiven.
I am not for Mrs. Clinton nor am I against Mr. Obama. I am against losing. Their policies are not that different. Mr. Obama doesn’t have as much experience as Mrs. Clinton. Mrs. Clinton is less inspiring than Mr. Obama.
It is said against her that Mrs. Clinton will do “anything to win.” I dispute that she would do “anything” to win. The “fighting” that has gone on so far in the primaries has been tame, but she fights hard.
I like that. I want someone who can fight back against the horror that the GOP is going to start as soon as we have a nominee.
There will be no dawning of a grand era of Bipartisanship just because Mr. Obama wishes it, calls for it, hopes for it.
The GOP will chainsaw him, his wife and children without a second thought all the while saying what wonderful Chistians they are.
That’s what they do. It’s what they always do.
As they are on the brink of losing power for perhaps generations to come, as they are on the brink of having an Administration come in that may open the vaults on documents that will expose the depths of their depravity, as they are on the brink of having their very ideology, Conservatism, shown for nothing more then still kissing the French Kings ass, they will do this with the savage ferocity of the cornered, venomous beasts they are.
We are about to oust a group of people best described as trying to make us into a Fascist WarMart.
The record is clear, Mrs. Clinton fights. And she wins.
Winning makes everything else possible.
Bob G.
Again, the words above are not mine, I just wish they were.
No Bloody Clue, None At All
It’s Super Duper Tuesday, with whipped cream and a cherry on top.
I don’t know who is going to win on the Democratic side, though it appears that the sick old man, John McCain, will win on the Republican side (I’m still pulling for Chuch Norris’s guy).
Too many polls, too many states, I can’t get a picture of what is likely to happen, or how undecideds will break.
Electoral-Vote.com/ is a good place to start if you want to handicap the races.
Sy Hersh on Israel’s Strike on Syria
He has a good summary of the circumstances surrounding the Israeli air strike on Syria on September 6, 2007.
Unfortunately, there are more questions than answers there.
I still don’t think that it was a nuclear program, Syria is 5 years away from having a meaningful nuclear power infrastructure, but my predictive powers suck wet farts from dead pigeons.
It’s Not Just Foreclosures, Rental Evictions are Up Too
Here.
We are looking at problems that pervade the current American way of life, and we’ve only seen the tip of the ice berg.
Hillary Clinton Cries Again
Hillary was at an event at the Yale Child Study Center, where she volunteered in law school, and she teared up when her former boss there, Penn Rhodeen, said how proud he was of her.
This is not a story. This should not be a story. Public figures tear up all the time.
Bill Clinton teared up a number of times, his doing so while listening to PMaya Angelou’s poetry comes to mind, Poppy Bush did so at the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Reagan did every time a boyscout said the pledge of allegiance.
This is, nor should it be a big deal, though doubtless the Sunday gasbags will talk about nothing else..
Bad Ideas: Combining Nuclear Power With Explosive Metals
I understand that there advantages to Sodium cooled reactors, particularly the fact that, because of the small cross section of the nucleus of Sodium, you can get a much more complete burn with fewer waste products, but that the Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor Prototype Development, memorandum of understanding (MOU) will lead nowhere.
The U.S Department of Energy (DOE), the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) have expanded cooperation to coordinate Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor Prototype development through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU establishes a collaborative framework with the ultimate goal of deploying sodium-cooled fast reactor prototypes. A sodium-cooled fast reactor uses liquid sodium to transfer heat, burning the plutonium and other transuranic elements in the process producing clean, safe nuclear power, less waste and increasing non-proliferation goals.
This makes the Hindenberg look like a cap gun.
Liquid Sodium explodes on contact with air.
Rudolph “Bialystock” Giuliani????
Well, I came across a blog posting from the marvelously named “Horse’s Ass” blog (and the story behind that name is a hoot) has suggested that Rudy Giuliani is the “Max Bialystock of Politics”.
If you’ve never seen Mel Brooks’ movie, The Producers, or the subsequent musical, you need to understand that Max Bialystock is an unsuccessful Broadway producer who realizes that he can make money by selling a few thousand percent of a production, and when it fails, no one will expect their money back.
So he chooses the wrong director, the wrong lead, the wrong play (Springtime for Hitler), and, of course, it turns out to be a smash hit, and his deception is revealed.
David “Goldy” Goldstein posits that Rudolph Giuliani did the same thing.
But could Giuliani and his high-paid strategists really have been that stupid? Or, is it possible that the Florida Strategy has actually worked exactly as planned?
While the rest of the presidential field were trudging through the snows of Iowa and New Hampshire, trading rhinoviruses with voters in diners and VFW halls throughout the heartland, Giuliani and his team were leisurely soaking up the rays in sunny Florida, making a few appearances, playing a little golf, and all the while laying claim to the Sunshine State’s winner-take-all primary. While Romney, McCain and Huckabee were emptying their campaign coffers duking it out in Nevada and Michigan and South Carolina, Giuliani apparently spent his $50 million-plus campaign war chest on what…? Sunscreen and greens fees? Two percent of the vote, and a single national delegate? According to media reports the Giuliani campaign is so broke his top staffers have foregone their salaries, raising questions of how he could have spent so much money for such poor results? But perhaps the better question might be, did he actually spend the money at all?
Think about it. Giuliani may be arrogant and vindictive and ethically challenged, but nobody’s ever accused the man of being stupid, so perhaps he and his advisers knew all along that he didn’t stand a chance on the national stage once Americans really got to know him. But just because he couldn’t win the White House didn’t mean he couldn’t make a little scratch on the side, and taking a lesson from Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom in Mel Brooks’ legendary The Producers, perhaps Giuliani realized he could make a helluva lot more money from a presidential flop than he ever could from a respectable run?
Go read the whole thing, it’s a hoot.
Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson Accused of Coercion for Business Buddy
This joker was accused of telling people that he would not grant contracts to people who supported Democrats, and then claimed it was a joke, and now it’s claimed that he, “demanded that the Philadelphia Housing Authority transfer a $2 million public property to a developer at a substantial discount, then retaliated against the housing authority when it refused to do so, a recent court filing alleges.”
This is business as usual for Bush and His Evil Minions&trade.
Poland Delaying on Missile Defense Deal
I think that the Polish government realizes that whoever comes in after Bush is likely to want to take US foreign policy in a different direction, and will likely drop the provocative installation of an ABM site in Poland and the Czech Republic, leaving them high and dry, so the delay in the missile defense pact announced by the Polish defense minister is a way to kick the football down the road to the next administration.
The translation from bureaucrat-speak is, “Sod off you short-timer incompetent prats.”
Delays in 30,000 lb Massive Ordinance Penetrator
It appears that there are significant delays with thebomb rack for the Massive Ordinance Penetrator (MOP).
Cost has increased 33%, and the delay is expected to be at least 10 months.
Considering the controversy over the weapon, Congress blocked funding to integrate it into the B-2, because of concerns that the Bush administration would use it on a surprise sneak attack against Iran, one wonders if the military might be dragging its heels until the crazies have left the White House.
Romney Wins Maine Caucuses
No clue as to what it means, but he won, and it’s likely that he will get almost all of Maine’s delegates.
Romney 68%, McCain 21%, Paul 19%, Huckabee 6%, and Ronald Reagan’s festering corpse 2%*.
Of note is the fact that both Senators Collins and Snowe endorsed McCain.
As I said, I don’t know what the heck it means.
*OK, that was undecided.
Army and Navy Agree to Fight Sensible Procurement Policies
As I discussed last week, the military does not like the idea of competing prototypes for weapons systems (Paid subscription required), and they are opposing this on the Joint Air-Ground Munition (JAGM) Contract.
They are claiming that it will cost an additional $1.5 billion dollars, but what it really comes down to is that it removes the opportunity to gold plate the system, and hence gold plate their retirement gigs, through changes in requirements after a winner is selected.
Something Weird is Going On With the Cut Internet Cables
We have had three major fiber optic cables cut, and they , carrying the bulk of internet traffic for the Middle East and India, and it’s been confirmed that ships did not cut internet cables with their anchors.
Three widely spaced cables have been severed, and the chance that this would occur as random chance is vanishingly small.
I don’t know what it is.
It’s unlikely to be terrorist, because media like the internet help them both in their internal communication and their propaganda.
It could be some sort of attempt by some of the more despotic regimes in the area to get control of the internet, but the economic consequences of this does not make sense.
If I put on my tinfoil hat, I think that it’s the NSA using creative destruction in order to get taps on the lines, kind of how they used submarines to put taps on lines running from the Kamchatka peninsula to the Soviet mainland during the Cold War.
Suicide Bombing in Israel
Damn. First in over a year.