old business

Clearing the open windows:

1.) Crazy person: "Rumsfeld wanted to be sure I saw the many letters of praise and kind words he had received following the announcement of his resignation. He had sorted the letters according to source — members of Congress, foreign dignitaries, U.S. military personnel, former associates, friends — and filed them in large, three-ring binders."

(He is big -- it's the movies that got small.)

2.) A city government used its eminent domain power to take property for a commercial development, never notifying the owner personally -- they ran a little "legal notice" in a newspaper, then pounced. Ten years later, after a decade of torture in the courts, he's vindicated and made whole. The comments following the story -- he was a land speculator who deserved to lose his property! -- are just...it...I don't....

3.) Previously noted.

elsewhere

New post at Cliopatria.

needs more cowbell

Read this fierce call to American ACTION w/r/t Iran...

"Sometimes - most of the time - a calm, measured approach is the right one, but there are times when we need bold acts that emanate from our core, thunderous words to condemn evil and injustice, steely-eyed confidence that doing the right thing is better than doing the pleasing thing. We are living in those times."

...and win a shiny notional silver dollar if you can figure out what ACTION it calls for.

Whooooooooooole lot of that going on. Obama better DO SOMETHING HUGE!!*!*!*!*!*!!!!!^^^!^^!^!!!!!!! BAM!!!!!!!!!!!! He has to make there be FREEDOM like in Braveheart BAM!!!!@!@!#!!!!!!!

In whales, this is called "clearing the blowhole." In humans? Media prominence.

in just three words

Good headline.

case closed

Satan!

a lot of promise in these moments

You would think that people in positions of great power would recognize the kinds of things that can go wrong once they decide to repress the uprising with violence.

Our authority is challenged -- quickly, flood the streets with guns! Ramp up the chaos! We must secure order!

Yeah, what could possibly go wrong with that?

...that we've been funding for decades

"While the Legislature has agreed to enact many of the cuts sought by the governor, we are unwilling to completely eviscerate programs for the poor and middle class, or to raid the already bare cupboards of cities and counties. One of our proposals is to eliminate the agency level of state government, which is an unneeded layer of bureaucracy."

State Senator Fran Pavley, having an amazing breakthrough

huh?

What the fuck?

Sadly, no.

elsewhere

New post at Cliopatria.

future nco

A certain tiny lady at Team Cherkis-Bray World Headquarters has a kind of jack-in-the-box thing with a sock monkey inside. Twist the crank, play the song, trigger the spring-loaded trap door, and the sock monkey pops out. The dad has been trying to show Our Tiny Lady how to play the song, trigger the spring, and release the sock monkey, yadda yadda, see how there's this whole process to it?

So, okay: she watches intently, a dozen times, then reaches down, grabs the trap door, rips it open with her fingernails, grunting audibly, and drags the fucking sock monkey out by his hair.

Greatest thing I've ever seen in my entire life.

there's this one dude at the office who might know

In the last few months of 1814, Congress debated a proposal from Secretary of War James Monroe to use state militia rolls as the basis for regular army conscription, cutting out the states and requiring local militia officers to report the names on their rolls directly to federal officials. Many details follow, but the part I enjoy is this: Anticipating debate on constitutional terms, Monroe's proposal includes language that tries to guess at the intent of the framers ("The fair inference seems to be..."), talking about the framing of the Constitution as an event in the obscure historical distance.

Monroe was James Madison's war secretary.

Funny for other reasons, but that's the really good one.

a perfect storm

Sam Mendes...has directed an adaptation of a book co-written by Dave Eggers...co-starring Maggie Gyllenhall...in which a character "stops running from the pain of her parents’ deaths," and the protagonists learn "that we should listen to our kids instead of projecting things onto them."

You may attend, but only if you are Devendra Banhart. No fake beards -- they'll be checking ID at the door.

things that make me want to move to a cabin in the woods

Read the comment thread on my latest book review, and see if you can resist the instinct to sigh heavily.

or not

So apparently the murder of a soldier outside an Arkansas recruiting center "may signal an ominous new wave of violent homegrown jihadists, counterterror officials say."

One incident is a trend.

America has a long history of extremely serious political, economic, and racial violence. It wouldn't surprise me to see a "new wave" of violence. But one shithead is still just one shithead, and the hyperventilation about ominous new waves of swarthy REDRUM is a budget maneuver.

doubtful

The "operations director" of Minutemen American Defense has apparently been arrested on murder charges. Whatever, but here's what the MAD website has to say about him:

"We are honored to have Gunny aboard. He served 6 tours over seas, where he has several medals. He received a Purple heart, Silver and Bronze star, Combat Infantry Badge and a Presidential citation for his actions in the Special Forces...At this time, we cant release a picture of Gunny due to Operational Security."

A statement from "Gunny" (same website) says this: "For now I am being referred to as 'Gunny.' My personal information is being withheld for security reasons...I am about to have a big bullseye on me and i don't want retaliation to reach my family."

Gunny = gunnery sergeant = Marine Corps. Special Forces = Army = "not the Marine Corps."

My favorite phenomenon, the neighborhood dipshit who was in "Special Forces." ("I won, like, four or five Medal of Honors. And a bunch of Purple Stars.")

policed

Via Radley Balko, this is fascinating, as are the comments.

jellied flesh rubies

New book review, with about 1/3 the pre-edit snark.

border patrol

From the Louisville (Ga.) Gazette, July 30 1799, pg. 2:

On Wednesday last, lieut. Howard, of the United States troops in consequence of some offensive words which appeared in the Reading Eagle, printed by Mr. Schneider, determined to take satisfaction by an appeal to the cowskin. By some mistake or disappointment, lieut. Howard instead of meeting with Mr. Schneider, met with his journey man whom he immediately began to whip, before the door of Judge Rush. A crowd instantly collected and young Mr. Heister and others interfered. In this situation the officer drew his sword on the most active, which was Mr. Heister. The latter retired a few paces and seized a garden hoe, with which he struck the arm of the officer in so violent a manner as to break and lacerate it to a dangerous degree. Judge Rush then interfered and lieut. Howard was bound in heavy recognizance.

The next article in the same column is about a minister who was attacked by soldiers who called him a "damned democrat." They started to carry him away for "punishment," but were forced to give up the effort when a "number of respectable gentlemen" arrived on horseback.

Picture something like that happening in response to this, for example. Seems pretty impossible.

wtf?

The Washington Times reports that the House in effect voted to support the Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act yesterday, with substantial agreement from Democrats. Then CNN says that, hold on a minute, moot point: the detainee photographs provision has been dropped in conference, because Obama promises not to release the photos anyway.

So now I'm just confused.

somebody missed a few signals

I could go on about this approximately forever, but let's do it with just one example from here:

During the early 1930s, an extraordinary wave of farmer bankruptcies devastated Iowa and its neighboring states, and farmers were horrified to see their friends and neighbors losing their farms in circumstances that were often beyond their full control. At the same time, a state inspection program intended to control livestock disease began to take cattle without compensation. Farmers began to resist. They convened on condemned farms to delay foreclosure auctions and to chase off state inspectors, for example, and closed roads in protest to keep milk from reaching city markets. The resulting conflict between farmers and government officials was violent, and the violence persisted.

But here's the part that really fascinates me: IIRC, no one died, or came close. And no one died because every party to the violence tacitly agreed to a set of rules. At a massive fistfight on a farm, a sheriff's deputy drew his gun; the farmers disarmed him and shamed him, and the other government officials at the farm watched them do it. Everyone involved understood that there would be violence, and everyone involved -- except for Barney Fife -- knew where it would end and how far it could be allowed to go. There are many examples of that exchange in American history, and there are also many examples of violence that didn't follow those rules.

This latest round of morally insane violence -- the pointless murder of a soldier in Arkansas, the pointless murder of a physician in his church, the pointless murder of a security guard at a museum -- is something else altogether. James von Brunn was merely a dumb and evil piece of shit, and his example has to be placed in its proper category.

(See also.)

because apparently the jews cut his allowance

James von Brunn went on a shooting rampage in the District of Columbia because he hated the fucking Jews and their puppets in the Zionist Occupied Government who hand out welfare to the blacks and all the other lazy minorities and take away our freedom in the process. And also because his Social Security benefits were cut. I assume I'm not the only person who spent twenty minutes this morning googling up funny-lunatic "going Galt" posts from right-wing blogs, like the we're quitting our jobs and taking Medicare benefits early to protest government intrusion into our lives comment that was briefly famous over the winter.

Cf. Patricia Nelson Limerick's magnificent The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West, esp. Chapter Three, "Denial and Dependence," which very astutely observes that the American West was founded on 1.) a powerful and loudly proclaimed ethic of independence, and 2.) federal subsidies.

In any event, what better way to strike at the heart of the beast than to shoot a security guard at a museum. Take that, Illuminati!

paying attention

Yep.

(See especially the third paragraph from the bottom, the one that begins, "The Old Grey Lady explains why...")

"the more extreme the government's abuses are, the more compelling is the need for suppression"

See also: "the opposite of a coincidence."

sadly correct

The "so what if the photos are released?" argument, with plausible conclusions.

joe lieberman...

...is the biggest choad in the history of earth.

why shit never changes

When our guy does it, it's for good reasons.

we'll see

The Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act may be dead in the House.

you can almost hear the howling wind

Historians will marvel over this shit.

very trying

Fucking hilarious.

A prediction: If they go through with it, the core of Obama's self-consciously "progressive" support will hold. Hope and change! (But he's leveraging confessions obtained under torture to execute detainees without a trial!?!?) Ooooohhhhh, he's a dreamboat, and his wife looks so elegant in sleeveless -- wait, did you say something?

Cult of personality.

mancrush, cont.

Name some Democratic members of Congress who are speaking this plainly and clearly. (Other Republicans are too far gone to bother asking about.)

btw

New post yesterday at Cliopatria, complete with batshit-crazy comments from William Hopwood.

awesome

Great website, fascinating provenance.

world leaders giggle and titter

Big Headline at the Huffington Post, as the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre approaches:

Clinton Pressures China To Provide Public Accounting Of Those Killed Or Detained

Yes, yes! We demand a public accounting of

Sec. 1305. (a) Short Title- This section may be cited as the ‘Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act of 2009’.
(b) Definitions- In this section:
(1) COVERED RECORD- The term ‘covered record’ means any record--
4(A) that is a photograph that was taken between September 11, 2001 and January 22, 2009 relating to the treatment of individuals engaged, captured, or detained after September 11, 2001, by the Armed Forces of the United States in operations outside of the United States; and
(B) for which a certification by the Secretary of Defense under subsection (c) is in effect.
(2) PHOTOGRAPH- The term ‘photograph’ encompasses all photographic images, whether originals or copies, including still photographs, negatives, digital images, films, video tapes, and motion pictures.
(c) Certification-
2(1) IN GENERAL- For any photograph described under subsection (b)(1)(A), the Secretary of Defense shall certify, if the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, determines that the disclosure of that photograph would endanger--
(A) citizens of the United States; or
(B) members of the Armed Forces or employees of the United States Government deployed outside the United States.
(2) CERTIFICATION EXPIRATION- A certification submitted under paragraph (1) and a renewal of a certification submitted under paragraph (3) shall expire 3 years after the date on which the certification or renewal, as the case may be, is submitted to the President.
(3) CERTIFICATION RENEWAL- The Secretary of Defense may submit to the President--
(A) a renewal of a certification in accordance with paragraph (1) at any time; and
2(B) more than 1 renewal of a certification.
(4) CERTIFICATION RENEWAL- A timely notice of the Secretary’s certification shall be provided to Congress.
(d) Nondisclosure of Detainee Records- A covered record shall not be subject to--
(1) disclosure undersection 552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly referred to as the Freedom of Information Act); or
(2) disclosure under any proceeding under that section.
2(e) Nothing in this section shall be construed to preclude the voluntary disclosure of a covered record.
(f) Effective Date- This section shall take effect on the date of enactment of this Act and apply to any photograph created before, on, or after that date that is a covered record.

Wait, how'd that get in there?

ADDED LATER:

Clinton's statement, from the State Department website, with emphasis added:

"A China that has made enormous progress economically, and that is emerging to take its rightful place in global leadership, should examine openly the darker events of its past and provide a public accounting of those killed, detained or missing, both to learn and to heal."

Send her over to talk to the Senate.

but it isn't raining

DO NOT QUESTION THE RAINMAKER HE IS MAKING RAIN IF YOU DO NOT SEE THE RAIN IT IS THE FAILURE OF YOUR EYES

First message from an exchange in the comments section at the Huffington Post:

JFC, what the hell? I am so angry about this bill and the fact that Obama supports it. We've been bamboozled, haven't we? Let's face it, Obama is protecting people who broke the law. I mean, we know what a creep Lieberman is, but now Obama's playing right along with the Bush admin's warhawk ways.

He escalated the war into Pakistan--I don't recall Congress having a vote on this, right or wrong--it needs to be pursued lawfully and with debate...

Guantamo closing is a bust, the Patriot Act, FISA, DADT and indefinite imprisonment of detainees is still in effect. He's more eloquent than Bush and less bellicose than Cheney, but what real difference is he making? Where's the transparency?

And the first message in response:

I want you to tell me exactly how is Obama protecting anyone except our troops? Come on facts now! Obama has always said the front on this was AFghan he always said that - I guess you were not listening. He truly is far more transparent than ANYONE that has EVER been in his office.

If Barack Obama got caught fucking a puppy on the White House lawn, the commenters at the Huffington Post would be all, like, who paid that dog to attack Great Leader's magnificently unflawed cock?!

starfuckers

The Bury the Evidence of War Crimes Act passed the Senate this week with the strong support of Democrats and only three votes in opposition: the reliable Russ Feingold, the insert adjective here Bernie Sanders, and Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn, whose vote probably had to do with objections to the underlying appropriations bill. Progressive websites that led the charge against Bush-era warlordism are leading the charge against the law to ensure that President Obama vetoes it when it reaches his de- Well, okay, so no they aren't. Curiously, they don't seem to be mentioning it at all. Cheneyism minus Cheney, wrapped in a hopey-changey package, turn out to be just fine. The Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, Eschaton... You can feel the palpable not care wafting through the room.

If I didn't know better, I would almost think that politics is mostly a form of public theater that has to do with personality branding and communities of identity, and has no underlying substance. The national security state governs without regard to the face on the wall.

ADDED LATER:

On the other hand, there's this important report.

"when the king would come to the show"

Please, please, please, please, please, please, please make it stop:

But as the Obamas departed, the respectful diners, who had been screened by Secret Service personnel before they could enter the eatery, erupted into a round of applause.

Then it was up to Broadway, where they had tickets at the Belasco Theatre for "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," a play by August Wilson about a man coming to terms with the history of slavery.

"I'm nervous, excited, honored," said Andre Holland, who plays character Jeremy Furlow, before the show. "It's like in Shakespearean times, when the king would come to the show."

What kind of idiot dimwit do you have to be to burst into applause because you witness a fucking politician eating dinner?

Andre Holland we forgive, because he's an actor and let's go ahead and not expect that much from him.

If the imperial presidency gets any more out of hand, it'll become possible for, I don't know, pick something outrageous -- for officers of the imperial court to shoot people in the face and not have to worry about inquiries from local authorities. We should just stop pretending, and actually fall to our knees in the presence of Great Leader.

By his dining selection, He has sanctified us. Ate He the scallops, and ate I the scallops also! Holy, then, the contents of my bowel! Oh, veritably, and my shit shall be as His! Witness this well, and attend thee to my wiping!

Eleven more apostles at the table, and you've got a painting.

worth a quick look

Thoughts?

oh. my. god.

The Huffington Post does American history.

ADDED LATER:

A shiny notional silver dollar to the reader who spots the sentence that literally, physically made me laugh so hard I fell over into the wall a little bit and hit my head.

when the apocalypse comes, tickets for police department musical theater productions will all be for standing room only, with no free refreshments

California is in CRISIS (whoop! whoop! whoop!) and omfg, we're not gonna have any more government at all, forever, and there won't even be any more fire departmentsssssss!!!!! It's doomsday!!!!!! (I carefully counted the number of exclamation points in those sentences, to ensure that I had used the correct number.)

So let's have a look at Senator Fran Pavley's May newsletter, sent to constituents before the doomsday election that ruined everything. Do click on that link and take a look at the thing yourself, because it's funnier that way. Pavley, who represents Team Cherkis-Bray World Headquarters in the state legislature, starts off with a bunch of amazing true facts about state finances, detailing the government's somber burdens and responsibilities. Money is tight, you see, and it's all spent very carefully and responsibly.

And then comes the rest of the newsletter: Senator Pavley was personally responsible for winning $350,000 in state funding to help restore a beachside "marble-tiled pool where the Hollywood glitterati once frolicked." You can buy special lawn mowers from a government agency "at a deep discount," to save the earth. Caltrans "held an official groundbreaking May 8 for a $1 billion project to add a northbound carpool lane on a 10-mile stretch of 405 between the Santa Monica Freeway (I-10) and the Ventura Freeway (U.S. 101)." (Ten miles, one lane: one billion dollars.) And Pavley herself "joined a group of my fellow lawmakers for a helicopter tour of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta." Woo hoo, free helicopter rides!

We're so desperately poor and broke and there won't even be any more firefighters 'cause we have to lay them all off -- wanna ride my helicopter to the marble-tiled pool? If California government gets hit any harder, you'll have to buy your own lawnmower. For full price! At a, like, lawnmower store!

So then tonight I'm looking through the City of West Hollywood's Recreation Services Brochure, twenty-eight pages of government-sponsored recreation events, and I learn that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department will be staging a teen production of, I am not making this up, "A Tribute to Grease." Contact Deputy Sean Ruiz at the West Hollywood station for details. ("Watch commander, how may I help you? [short pause] Negative, ma'am, the part of Sally Bowles has already been cast. Would you be interested in our spring production of Equus? We're using all kindergartners for the horse roles.")

Without a permanent sales tax increase, ladies and gentlemen, Deputy Sean Ruiz will be forced to shop the sheriff's script revisions to non-union talent. The major narcotics teams will have to mount Jesus Christ Superstar without glitter and glow sticks. And the K-9 deputies will just totally not even be reimagining Brigadoon, which, okay, they had this whole amazing thing worked out with dry ice and a bunch of mountain goats, your mouth would have just been, like, hanging open, and then bam: first dance number!

We'll survive.

must read

Click through the annoying ads for details on the, quote, "Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act of 2009," which has been approved by a unanimous Senate.

If you still wish to argue that the Democratic Party represents anything significantly different from the other party of unrestrained empire and state power, I'd love to hear that argument.

ADDED LATER:

Spot the darkly hilarious part of this story:

Amidst Questions About Detainee Abuse Photos, Gibbs Assails the British Press
June 01, 2009 8:22 AM

Last week, the White House was asked about a report in the British press that Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba (Ret.), the lead investigator into the abuse at Abu Ghraib, said he'd seen the detainee abuse photographs that President Obama is fighting to keep from being released. Thursday's Daily Telegraph reported that Taguba said that the "pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency."

Taguba told Salon's Mark Benjamin that the newspaper applied his quote to the wrong photographs. The ones he'd seen showing abuse and rape were not the same ones in the ACLU lawsuit that President Obama is fighting to keep from being released. He had been referring to other ones he'd seen.

"The photographs in that lawsuit, I have not seen," Taguba said.

But before Taguba clarified why there was confusion, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs took the opportunity to go after the entire British press.

The story is totally and irresponsibly false, ladies and gentlemen, and the British media -- those fools! -- are beneath contempt. It is not X set of photographs that shows us raping children and torturing detainees -- it's Y set of photographs that show us raping children and otherwise torturing detainees. Much ado about nothing! Anyway, it's all the fault of the British press.

Robert Gibbs makes Scott McClellan look dignified.