Miniblog: In which I am irked by NPR's political reporting

NPR (probably Steve Inskeep) just referred to Jay Rockefeller as being "in the liberal wing of his party."

That's true. If there's one thing us liberals love, it's companies getting paid in tax dollars to illegally eavesdrop on Americans, then using some of that money to pay Senators like Jay Rockefeller to get them off the hook. That is one of our core liberal values.

I also enjoyed the clip of Rockefeller praising Reid as a Good and Righteous public servant, unconcerned with how healthcare will affect his re-election. I have no doubt that is true.

Hummingbirds in Cap Hill

Scalia: No constitutional problems executing an innocent man

“This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is ‘actually’ innocent. Quite to the contrary, we have repeatedly left that question unresolved, while expressing considerable doubt that any claim based on alleged ‘actual innocence’ is constitutionally cognizable.” --Antonin Scalia

This is the case he's talking about. Seven of 9 eyewitnesses have now recanted.

Quote from The Gamble

I'm reading The Gamble on my new Kindle and I came across this mind-blowing quote:

A senior intelligence officer in Iraq described the long-term American goal as "a stable Iraq that is unified, at peace with its neighbors, and is able to police its internal affairs, so it isn't a sanctuary for al Qaeda. Preferably a friend to us, but it doesn't have to be."

So basically our goal for at least the next 10-20 years is to get Iraq back to where it was before we invaded. Sobering thought...

Petraeus and the Rule of Law

When Petraeus was given the top post in Iraq, I was skeptical about him. My feeling at the time was that we needed to get out, the sooner the better. Petraeus, on the other hand, was gearing up to fight a counterinsurgency, which meant that we would be in Iraq for an indefinite amount of time.

A few weeks ago Thomas Ricks spoke at Amazon. Since then I've been reading The Gamble, Ricks' follow up to Fiasco, his scathing critique of the Iraq war. The Gamble has really changed my opinion of both Petraeus and the surge. It's a good read--I highly recommend it.

Anyway, today I saw a quote from Petraeus that only increased my respect for him, particularly the second paragraph.

   What I do support is what has been termed the responsible closure of Gitmo. Gitmo has caused us problems, there's no question about it. I oversee a region in which the existence of Gitmo has been used by the enemy against us. We have not been without missteps or mistakes in our activity since 9/11 and again Gitmo is a lingering reminder for the use of some in that regard... I don't think we should be afraid of our values we're fighting for, what we stand for. And so indeed we need to embrace them and we need to operationalize them in how we carry out what it is we're doing on the battlefield and everywhere else...

   So one has to have some faith, I think, in the legal system. One has to have a degree of confidence that individuals that have conducted such extremist activity would indeed be found guilty in our courts of law. When we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Conventions, we rightly have been criticized, so as we move forward I think it's important to again live our values, to live the agreements that we have made in the international justice arena and to practice those.

It's really amazing to see that quote from someone who's in a position to understand the danger to American lives, typically the justification for ignoring, subverting, and trampling the rule of law outright. Meanwhile, back on the ranch, Congress has passed a law allowing Obama not to comply with the Freedom of Information Act and release photos of detainees, because even though the photos are "not particularly sensational" they will nevertheless "put our troops in greater danger."

To me, that argument doesn't appear to hold a lot of water. I honestly don't understand Obama's interest in covering up the crimes of his predecessor, unless it's meant to reinforce policies that dramatically increase Executive power. I don't point this out of the sake of liberal outrage. I don't consider it surprising that those in power seek to consolidate it, whether it's Dick Cheney or Barack Obama.

Yesterday, Jenny sent me a quote that perfectly describes this problem:

"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." --Plato

I believe that's true, especially when the people in question are able to interpret and re-write the laws at will.

Frankly, it's been a depressing experience to watch Cheney & Bush run roughshod over the Constitution for eight years, only to have Obama come in and do the same. Still, I find Petraeus's quote inspiring. It points to a lofty ideal, something worth believing in, even if we're very far from it, and the way forward isn't always clear.

Mudslide

Easy played a great double-header Sunday against Badger and Pan-Galactic Groove Squad. Both games were great, both games won by 3 points or less, and Huckin' came out on top both times--nice! Also, everyone from all the teams had great spirit.

The only downside came in the form of a large mud pit in one of the end zones, which I dove into headfirst on a layout. Normally, this wouldn't be any kind of a problem, but apparently this field had been recently fertilized. With very fresh fertilizer. Like, fresh from the cow's arse fresh.

This resulted in some less-than-glorious nicknames for the remainder of the game, including 'Stinky,' and 'Mr Poopy-Pants.'

It also resulted in the following cheer:

Charlie Brown had a dog named snoopy
If you lay out, don't slide in the poopy

When Nevin plays he wears a jock strap
If you throw, don't throw toward the crap

Pan-Galactic's hot like a skewer
Too bad Jay layed out in the manure

Ah, the poetry of ultimate. It just goes to show that all great art is born of suffering.

A day about town

Today was a normal Saturday, I made some calls, got a haircut, went shopping.

Before I get to that though, I have to say one thing: banks are evil. I am deeply unhappy about bailing them out in the way that we are. The last time things were this bad our new President had this to say:

"[T]he rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failures and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men."

-FDR

Hell, yes, and thank you, Franklin for saying that better than I ever could. That is exactly how I felt talking to Chase last week.

Two months ago I made a payment 4 days late. I got dinged with a $40 late fee, plus I had to pay interest on my charges for that month. Fine, whatever. The next month they charged me interest on my purchases again. Long story short, that is how it works. Miss a payment one month, pay interest for two months.

I don't know how that's not illegal, but it's definitely evil. Revolution is looking likelier by the day, so those that are gonna be first against the wall better watch their step. Do you really want to die in a blindfold because you screwed your own customers for a few measly bucks? Was it worth it? That's all I'm saying...

Speaking of new Presidents, the Acme Barbershop was all abuzz about the inauguration. Curt, my regular hair-cutter, told everybody that once Obama is inaugurated, gas will cost four cents-a-gallon and cars will emit perfume & flowers. Brian, my hair-cutter from today, muttered, "I don't know what the fuck that's about. Sometimes I wish I were deaf." Ah, topical banter in a barbershop--just like in the movies!

I don't do a lot of shopping, but it was more interesting with my iPhone. Borders often sends me coupons for 25% to 30% off an item, so I wandered around Borders trying to find something I want that is less than 125% of its price on Amazon. It was not easy. I bought a $45 book (Beautiful Code,) and an $11 CD (Fab Four Suture.) Then I realized that Amazon employees and most of the rest of the country don't pay sales tax on Amazon. Considering that, my net savings was $5. It took me about an hour in the store, and an hour in transit to save that $5.

I guess it's obvious that brick & mortar stores are hurting, but that really threw it into sharp relief. A lot of people have smart phones, and it's incredibly easy and cheap to shop online, so who will buy from these stores anymore? Only people who have time, an obsessive desire to save, coupons for a steep discount, and cheap public transit. (Gas and parking would more than cancel out my savings. Counting my bus fare, savings from today was $3.50.)

In addition to my $3.50, I also got a front row seat to several protests being held on the same block downtown.

There were Christians:

Zionists? (I couldn't get a good picture of the last flag, but I'm pretty sure it's a firefighters emblem, so I really don't know what this person was about.)

And Iraq war protesters. (Not pictured. I did give them a thumbs up though.)

It's ironic for someone to yell, "Jesus loves you!," very angrily at everyone who walks by. It reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw: "Lord, please protect me from your followers."

Frankly though I don't think they're any less effective than any of the other groups out there. I don't want to be mean to the Iraq war protesters, whom I sympathize with, but if massive worldwide demonstrations didn't prevent (or even slow) the war, then handing out fliers on the corner isn't going to end it.

That's okay. This year when I was in California during the Prop 8 battle, I decided that protesting isn't actually about convincing anyone. It's just an outlet for people who care about some issue or another, because they have a voice and they want to be heard. I totally get that. I do blog, after all.

Why have one name when you can have two?

Apologies for not posting since, (gasp) October. I guess the spirit hasn't moved me, or I've grown tired of calling out the Democrats for their obvious fakery.

This morning I rode the bus. I forgot my book, and I didn't feel like listening to the iPod, so I just sat there and took it all in. Lately I've been musing on the nature of perception & consciousness (sorry, no big insights here) but for some reason everything seemed like I was seeing it for the first time. Perhaps because I don't usually ride the 60 to work.

Bringing it back to the title of the post, this is what I saw at one of the stops on the way to Beacon Hill.


Tee-hee. It seems like the second guy they hired to make the English sign came up with a different answer, consistency be damned. This was probably a smart move, since careless white people such as myself will never notice, and everyone in the Hau Hau/How How can read the Chinese and doesn't give a damn what the letters say.

The thing is, unlike the rest of the 60 route, I've seen this sign on an almost daily basis for the past four years. For whatever reason, today I actually looked at it.

I wonder what else is out there that I haven't been seeing?