Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion.
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"News that's not known, or not known enough." Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion. |
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If you ask me (and I'm sure you meant to) the law Judge Armstrong struck down didn't go far enough. It would seem much more intelligent, appropriate, and better for society at large to disallow any contact at all between kids and people paid to lure children into the military. The United States is planning to bomb the moon. Seriously, and of course. Harriet Miers, former lawyer for George W Bush, has testified in the Congressional probe of the Bush-Cheney administration's firings of US Attorney who wouldn't push their politicized prosecutions. Or at least, we're supposed to think it's a probe and we're supposed to think Miers testified, but all this is taking place behind closed doors so for all we know they're just sharing shrimp hors d'oeuvres and drinking rum. Justice happens in the open, and when something's hidden it's almost certainly not justice. It had previously been announced that Karl Rove would be testifying in early June, but early June is over and it remains an open question when or whether Rove will ever drop by for snacks and cocktails. In Wisconsin, Dodge County Judge Andrew Bissonnette has ordered the state's Department of Corrections to stop torturing inmate Warren Lilly. There's really no other word for it, as the state has been force-feeding Lilly with a real emphasis on force, stretching out
File this under holy crap: In dozens of cases in Florida, a dog's "testimony" was admitted in court, and in at least several cases it helped put men behind bars. The dog's alleged ability to identify a perp's scent from the scene of the crime and testify to it later is far beyond anything I've ever heard attributed to German Shepherds or other sniffy dogs, and after dozens of court cases, one judge finally had the bright idea of testing the dog's amazing ability, instead of just taking the dog's handler's word. The dog, of course, flunked the test. Every person convicted in these trials should get a new trial. Of course. Every prosecutor who brought this dog and/or its handler, one John Preston, to court should be disbarred. Of course. Every judge who allowed this dog's sniffings to be introduced in court should be removed from the bench. Of course. If people raise an enormous ruckus, it's possible that there will be new trials, but the other two common sense responses won't even be considered. Of course. In Gloucester County, Virginia, citizens who signed a petition asking that four county supervisors be removed from office have been fined $2,000 each. It sounds at first blush like an absurd abrogation of the constitutional right to petition government for redress of grievances, and upon reading the news coverage to the end I can't see it any other way. If you believe the ACLU's legal filing in this case (I do) then the US government railroaded Sabri Benkahla during the Bush-Cheney administration, charging him with terrorism and, when he was found not guilty, recharging him with questionable charges of perjury. He received a ten-year sentence, and has been held in virtual isolation ever since, at the Northern Ohio Correctional Facility. As ugly and awful as so many such miscarriages of justice are, I sometimes shudder to think what America would look like without the ACLU's work at challenging such outrages. Prison inmates have no right to challenge their convictions using DNA evidence, says the cro magnon Supreme Court, in its traditional and sickening 5-4 split. Shameful, and beyond un-American, it's a kick in the teeth to truth, justice, and the American Way (if the American Way still has anything to do with truth and justice), and it means, bottom line, that a lot of innocent people will spend years in prison and/or die there. Every time there's another flat-out fascist ruling like this, remember who to thank. First, thank the Obama administration, which sided against the complaint, taking the position that convicts have no right to see the DNA evidence against them. Also, thank the Democrats in the Senate, because it's no surprise where men like John Roberts and Samuel Alito stand on the rights of people — they're just plain opposed, which was obvious when they were nominated. If Democrats in the Senate had shown any spine or any semblance of principle, such monstrous nominees never would have been confirmed.
In yet another troubling 5-4 Supreme Court ruling, it will now be much more difficult to sue for age discrimination at work. The Defense Department, in its training materials, teaches that protests should be considered "low-level terrorism". That's the American Defense Department, not Cuba or Communist China. Update: Upon receiving a complaint from the ACLU, the DoD promptly apologized and said they'd adjust their screwy heads. More than 100 American children whose parents have been (or could be) deported have filed suit against the President. Excellent strategy, seems to me — raise the issue, embarrass the government, change the policy, and maybe put these families back together. In Arizona's Maricopa County, the Board of Supervisors has rejected state funding to continue sheriff Joe Arpaio's zealous enforcement of anti-immigration laws. Arpaio is the most famous jackass in law enforcement, a man proud of his cruelty, and he's been an embarrassment to Arizona, Maricopa County, and Phoenix for far too long, so let's applaud this show of sanity. The newspaper's coverage indicates that the Board will probably reconsider accepting the funds at some future date, but anything that even briefly interrupts Arpaio's shenanigans is good news.
Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) says, not quite in so many words, that he has utterly zero interest in repealing "Don't Ask Don't Tell". Under his leadership the Senate won't do anything about it, and if anything happens it'll happen because of President Obama. If you're surprised that Sen Reid doesn't give a damn about equal rights in the military, where have you been? After the furious response to the Obama administration's homophobic brief filed in defense of the Defense of Marriage Act, the President announced that the same-sex partners of federal workers (not including the military) will be eligible for some employment benefits (not including health care, etc.). I don't want to belittle this move, but it is ... little. The timing, along with a self-serving announcement of "non-discrimination in the Oval Office", sure makes it look like nothing but an attempt to calm the fury of people who believe in equal rights, and I hope it doesn't. They've scheduled a meeting with gay leaders. but a meeting won't be enough either. Somebody has to be fired (presumably the Bush-Cheney era holdover who authored the DOMA brief) and it needs to happen quickly.
After that, President Obama needs to actively push Congress to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. Yeah, I know it wouldn't be an easy battle, and it'll enrage the right-wing, and so frickin' what. It's the right thing to do, it needs to be done, and if it's ignored or back-burnered for years, which seems to be what Obama wants, the Obama administration is going to start losing its base of support. On June 25 — that's Thursday — Vice President Joseph Biden will be the keynote speaker at the 10th Annual LGBT Leadership Council Dinner, allegedly a big Democratic Party fundraiser. Should be lots of fun, with lots of protests by lots of angry gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders, and straights who believe in civil rights. At last word the White House Press Secretary is still saying that President Obama stands behind the brief, which tells me that President Obama just doesn't get it. Senator Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) says the Obama administration's brief in DOMA, comparing gayness to incest, wasn't inappropriate. I don't know how widespread this response is, but it matches mine — Frank is really full of it on this.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says his state won't send a lawyer to defend the anti-gay Proposition 8 as it's challenged in federal court. This is, at a bare-bones level, pretty much the same choice the Obama administration had to make, when it came time to defend the indefensible Defense of Marriage Act. And the Obama administration made the opposite decision, with Eric Holder's Justice Department assigning several attorneys to write briefs that enthusiastically stand up for inequality. I'm not a big fan of Schwarzenegger since he stopped making action movies, but on gay rights he's miles ahead of Barack Obama. Anti-gay activists in Maine have hired the same public relations outfit that ran California's Proposition 8 campaign, and taken plenty of money from the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage, as they start their efforts to cancel gay rights in Maine. This McClatchy piece is the best (and one of the few) mainstream pieces I've seen, explaining how exasperated leftish-thinking people are becoming at the Obama administration's steadfast march down the middle of the road. There's a tipping point coming soon, when Barack Obama will have irreparably defined himself as an easygoing guy who wants to be popular, who won't ruffle feathers, and who thus won't accomplish much of anything.
As an aside, the Obama administration teetered on the brink last week, when the President swatted a fly while cameras were running. I'm not kidding. Can you imagine what we'd hear from the brain-dead right-wing if Obama had missed and the fly had gotten away? It would've become his defining moment in the media's perception, marking Obama forever as "so ineffective he couldn't hurt a fly"... The Obama administration probably will reach its tipping point soon, either from some substantial failure or from something silly but symbolic, manufactured and blown out of proportion by the right-wing media. When that happens it'll doom Obama's agenda (as mild and milquetoast as that is) and make it possible, even likely, for some smooth-talking Republican to defeat Obama in 2012. Are you sighing with me? All we ever really expected of Obama was that he would be a moderate who might tinker a bit with the system, offering slight improvements in a few areas while ignoring the rest of the mess. Certainly we knew better than to expect sweeping changes, but we thought Obama might, if we're lucky, make maybe 8-10% of the changes America desperately needs, and let the rest of the problems fester. With expectations that low, it's remarkable that he's managing to disappoint even us. While the National Security Agency (NSA) was busily scooping up unknown numbers of emails without warrants, one of the email accounts it was poking through belonged to former President Bill Clinton. Freedom is apparently an amusing joke to Rep Steve King (R-Iowa), who cracked wise on the floor of the House last week that the Uighurs are "wasting away in MargaUighurville". What the holy hell is wrong with Republicans? They perpetually posture as if they're all about freedom from government oppression, and when the government holds innocent people in prison for seven years Republicans mock the victims and insult anyone who gives a damn. Rhode Island has legalized medical marijuana. Big hugs for Rhode Island. If you've ever been sick, really frickin' sick, imagine for a moment how you'd feel if the government took away your medicine. That's what the federal government does routinely, and that's what lawmakers in Rhode Island, and earlier New Mexico and California, are trying to stop.
Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) is proposing mandatory penalties of up to 25 years in prison for first-time convictions for selling the dreaded super-potent pot. Will there never be a truce in the stupidest war ever, the war on drugs? Rep Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) has introduced legislation to remove the federal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana. He'll be the butt of jokes and the legislation has no chance of passing, but it's the right thing to do and we need a lot more Barney Franks. Monica Conyers, the Detroit City Councilwoman who's married to US Congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan), says God will deliver her from the bribery scandal that's closing in on her. God's office offered no comment. You still can't buy a vibrator in Alabama. Football star Donté Stallworth has been sentenced to thirty days in jail for driving drunk and killing a pedestrian. Sweet Jeebers, that's just bonkers beyond belief. I understand that our society worships athletes, but drunk driving ought to be punished severely. When you kill somebody while driving drunk that's at least manslaughter and it ought to warrant some serious prison time. In my opinion.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was tortured 183 times under the orders of the Bush-Cheney administration, says he lied to get the torture to stop. And of course he did, because outside of the movies that's what anybody would do. If you're having a hard time keeping your overhyped bad guys straight, Khalid was described by former VP Dick Cheney on Face the Nation as, "An evil, evil man that's been in our custody since March of '03. He did not cooperate fully in terms of interrogations until after waterboarding. Once we went through that process, he produced vast quantities of invaluable information about Al Qaida." And how "invaluable" was that illegally-obtained information? Sorry, Dick can't tell ya (it's classified). But I can tell you this: If you've got time to waterboard someone 183, it's not a ticking time-bomb. The CIA says it's fired its contract torturers and contracted torture psychologists. To which we say, whoopie ding dong. Nobody involved in torture will face any legal charges, and the Obama administration's pretense that torture has ended while eschewing any and all punishment for torture only makes it an absolute certainty that the US will be using torture again as soon as the Obama administration ends. The CIA is trying to suppress part of a torture overview report that delves specifically into whether torture is/was effective in extracting information from bad guys. They're urging the Obama White House to suppress any details of the Agency's "interrogation" (read: torture) of prisoners during the Bush-Cheney administration, but I doubt that President Obama needs any urging, as secrecy and protecting war criminals has
As for the question of whether torture is or was effective, that's utterly irrelevant to me. Some things aren't up for debate, like the "debate" Republicans want America to have, over whether America should be a shining beacon for restoration of the Spanish Inquisition. The federal government is threatening to prosecute waterboarding ... if it's done by anti-torture protesters.
Robert Cantu is an Hispanic 17-year-old who had a noose tied around his neck and was dragged through a parking lot by a bunch of teenagers shouting ethnic slurs. The 18-year-old who (apparently; it's hard to tell from this poor coverage) drove the car pled guilty to ethnic intimidation has been sentenced to ten days in jail. The perp's name isn't even mentioned in AP's report. So the 17-year-old victim gets his name in the paper, and the 18-year-old perp gets ten freakin' days in jail, and his identity is shielded by AP. As we mentioned last week, Peter Lance dug up what he believes are compelling connections between al Qaeda and the Mafia, and wrote about it in his book Triple Cross. US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald wants Lance's book suppressed, which tells you a lot about Patrick Fitzgerald. Suppression sucks and I'm adamantly opposed but if that's not enough to make you read a book, read Lance's intriguing and infuriating piece in the new Playboy. The Washington Post has fired its best journalist, Dan Froomkin, and replaced him with yet another right-wing writer. Froomkin's White House coverage was (and remains, for a few more weeks) consistently superb, insightful, and free of the bullsh*t assumptions that permeate 99% of mainstream punditry. He was among the most popular writers (despite being well-hidden) on the Post's site, one of the few mainstream voices who have criticized Obama from the left when he deserves it instead of attacking the administration with lunatic Republican talking points, and on a personal note, he was the only person at the Post who ever answered my emails. There's no doubt that Froomkin will land elsewhere within a very short time, and wherever he goes, I'll be reading his writing regularly.
The Washington Post's news coverage is still better than average for a daily paper in America, but that's faint praise, and with Froomkin gone there'll be no-one worth reading in the Post's op-ed section. That's where you'll find the stone-stupid Richard Cohen, Bill Kristol, Robert Kagan, Charles Krauthammer, and whatever other dolts I can't remember at the moment dazzle readers with their dullness. Need an example of what's welcome at the Post? In this fine column Krauthammer criticizes President Obama for referring to Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by his title, as Iran's Supreme Leader. I ask seriously, not as merely an insult (though it's also that) how empty of ideas does a man's head need to be, to have nothing better than this to offer than this? I've never actually read a Krauthammer column from start to finish (have you? has anyone?) but I've seen hours of Krauthammer on TV, where he's been a ubiquitous talking head for decades. And again, seriously, not just an insult, I don't think I've ever heard Krauthammer say anything that wasn't either a Republican talking point or some other nonsense that can't stand up to a moment's intelligent scrutiny. And he's a key cornerstone of the Washington Post's op-ed page, while Dan Froomkin cleans out his desk. According to CNBC, if you were victimized by predatory lending or suckered into a subprime loan, it's your own damned fault.
CNBC reporter John Harwood interviewed the President last week, and pretended with a straight face that the Obama administration "hasn't received much critical press". President Obama then had to explain to the alleged reporter what Fox News is and does. Can Harwood be this stupid, or does he just play stupid on TV? Roger Ebert takes a swing at Bill O'Reilly. There's nothing here that'll startle you, but Ebert — known mostly around the nation for his thumbs — is a reliably good writer and he's a lot of fun when he's cranked. The evidence suggests that in their effort to protect Senator John Ensign (R-Nevada), Fox News outed a source. Here's another report on global climate change — wanna guess whether the news is good or bad? The focus this time is on America (which might help in getting Americans' attention), where the temperature has gone up two degrees in the past fifty years, sea level is up eight inches at some parts of the US coastline, and big rainstorms are bigger now and getting bigger still.
As the date approaches for the promised beginning of the American withdrawal from Mosul and other Iraqi cities, American military minds are befuddled and balking. But it's now or never. The agreement calls for withdrawal. Withdraw. Procrastinating will only get us caught in the middle of every argument and we will bear the blame whether or not it's deserved. The headline says "US soldiers find some Iraqis lack enthusiasm for joint patrols in Baghdad". It's their country. Get out and let them solve their problems. We have enough trouble solving our own problems.
It's hard to tell from thousands of miles away, especially since the Iranian government has booted most foreign journalists from the country, but the general word seems to be that protests over the stolen election in Iran are huge — hundreds of thousands — and getting bigger, and that the government will soon have to either back down or crack down. A guy described as Iran's most senior Islamic cleric says "no-one in their right mind can believe" the election returns there, and real reporter Robert Fisk has a secret letter that purportedly proves that Mirhossein Mousavi won the election, and Pirate Bay and Google are helping the protesters get their message out. It's invigorating to see protesters protesting, but lets' remember that Iranian challenger Mousavi is no breath of fresh air. He's better on women's rights than incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but in most other ways Mousavi and Ahmadinejad are about equally cashews and pistachios. Republicans have complained loudly (that's their forté) that the Obama administration should be speaking out in support of the Iranian protesters. Time's Joe Klein does a nice job explaining just how staggeringly stupid this complaint is. Heck, even Ashton Kutcher understands the situation better than Republicans. Seems to me it's been years since I've heard anything from Republicans that isn't staggeringly stupid.
 UN watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei sparred with an Israeli envoy Thursday after being accused of bias in the handling of an investigation into Syria's nuclear activities, diplomats
 If it's a case of credibility, I'll side with ElBaradei. Israeli troops humiliate Palestinians — and put it on YouTube. We should always make an effort to crack code-words that convey lies, like when government officials and dishonest media refer to "detainees" (prisoners) and "enhanced interrogation" (torture), and a few other well-crafted falsehoods that smuggle distasteful concepts past the consciousness of readers and listeners. Here's a code-word I hadn't recognized as such — the Israeli "settlements" in the West Bank. These are "settlements" bigger than Manhattan, all illegal under international law, but utterly urbanized and as populous as a major city. If these are "settlements", so's Boston. Another way to sneak an important concept past people is to hide it under an innocuous, boring headline, like the New York Times does here, titling this piece "Fictions on the ground" when a more appropriate and accurate title would be "Settlements, my ass".
The UK has announced it's fifth inquiry into the assorted circumstances that let to the Iraq war. One of the key factors this time around, if they're serious (always a big if) will be a newly-released memo from the author of the Downing Street memo, further elaborating on the plans of US Prez GW Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to attack Iraq, regardless of lack of evidence and lack of UN approval.
Welcome to Portugal, and in case you've ever wondered, drug decriminalization works. Italy says it'll take three refugees from Guantanamo. Brazil is creating a state-owned oil company, a good idea indeed. When you're basically sucking wealth out of the ground, that wealth ought to be shared by everyone. Brazil, Russia, India and China have formed an alliance to challenge America's stature as the one and only global superpower. It's cleverly called BRIC for the participating nations' initials, and I have to say, it sounds like a good idea and a real necessity for the world. Best of luck, BRIC.
Dozens of people were killed in early June when the Peruvian National Police opened fire on un-armed protesters. They were protesting another of those godawful "free trade" agreements, this one between the US and Peru, and American war on drugs money paid for the helicopters used in the killings, and trained the cops in what's euphemistically called "riot control".
The US has heightened its defense of Hawaii out of worries that North Korea might launch a missile attack. Sounds like a hell of a long shot to me, but better safe than sorry, as they say. Trillions for the financial criminals who created the economic catastrophe, billions for the auto industry, millions for the ordinary people victimized, and nothing for the auto parts industry. Am I the only one who thinks that these priorities are all utterly out of whack? "Is Obama flubbing the financial fix", asks Business Week, by not using the financial meltdown as an opportunity to restore rigorous regulatory oversight? Why, I wonder, is Business Week stating the obvious in the form of a question? The debate over economic policy has taken a predictable yet ominous turn: the crisis seems to be easing, and a chorus of critics is already demanding that the Federal Reserve and the Obama administration abandon their rescue efforts. For those who know their history, it's déjà vu all over again —
Obama to California: Drop dead.
A group of genuine Democrats is running ads to convince faux Democrats like Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu to stop opposing a public option in health care reform. Realistically, though, all indications suggest that the Republicans' lies will again win the day, and we'll again see no meaningful health care reform. And now a coalition of Democrats and Republicans say they're looking for a "compromise", but if you know anything about who's who in DC you'll recognize the names, and recognize that they're looking to block any possible publicly-funded option. It's do or die time, and I suspect that means a lot of people will die. Health care in America will continue to be a deadly joke for another generation — unless President Obama pulls out all the stops and really rallies public opinion and public pressure for a public option. Now. It's literally unbelievable to me that you have polling that shows that the public supports a public option for health care by enormous margins (83-14%) and yet we have Democrats dithering over
In Congressional hearings last week, top executives of UnitedHealth's Golden Rule Insurance Co., Assurant Health, and WellPoint, parent of Blue Cross of California, explained that they have no intention of changing their routine practice of scouring policy-holders'
Words almost fail me, but after punching the wall a few times I'll just type that this explains why health care should be nationalized, why these companies should be out of business, and why these executive leeches should be behind bars. Who's to blame for the current health care crisis? If the above doesn't make it clear, maybe this will. It's the insurance companies, where they face the daily conflict of interest between providing health care and making a profit, but there's no conflict at all — it's money that matters, and they'll provide only whatever minimal health care keeps the money coming in. Between 2000 and 2007, the 10 largest publicly traded insurance companies increased their profits 428 percent, from $2.4 billion to $12.9 billion, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. During the same period, the number of insurers fell by nearly 20 percent, largely because of a huge wave of mergers that led to stunning consolidation. And premiums increased by more than 87 percent, rising four times faster than the average American's How corrupt is Max Baucus (D-Montana)? He's earning $1,500 a day from the health care and health insurance industries. $1,500 a day. And he's the chairman of one of the two Senate committees tasked with passing health care
Former Senator Tom Daschle stands foursquare against any public option in health care reform. That's the same Daschle who, if he hadn't withdrawn his name, would've been Obama's key guy pushing health care reform. Just goes to show you again, how stupid it is for Obama to keep reaching out to Republicans. Now, nitpickers might point out that Daschle is a Democrat, but hey, so was Joe Lieberman. So's Ben Nelson. So's Diane Feinstein. On and on goes the list, but when I was a young man people who spoke like Daschle, Lieberman, Nelson, Feinstein, et al, were Republicans, and to me they still are. If you're making $400-million, like Rush Limbaugh is, I would imaging that health care is never a worry, but I don't see how any audience of average Americans can respond with anything but a snicker to his reality-bending comment that "Day to day, there is no health care crisis in this country". After battling payment of damages for twenty years, Exxon-Mobil has been ordered to pay interest on the paltry $507.5 million it's been ordered to pay the victims of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. With interest, that would put Exxon-Mobil on the hook for a little more than a billion dollars — roughly 1/45th of the company's 2008 profits — but it's much more likely that Exxon-Mobil will appeal, again. Pixar granted a dying girl's last wish. Grab a tissue and get ready to cry. Nestle cookie dough now comes with free E. coli.
AIG has been accused of screwing over the passengers of Captain Sullenberger's Flight 1549, but it appears to be a bit of a bum rap. Lamar Advertising Company, a billboard operator based in Baton Rouge, took payment from a group opposed to continued US subsidies for Israel, but edited the bite and the point out of the group's billboard message. Those nifty new laser weapons that the US military is using are causing eye damage to American troops and, of course, Iraqis. They've got a pretty good count of how many American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have received eye injuries from these gadgets, but "Human Rights Watch does not keep data on any injuries to Iraqis from lasers," we are told. And nobody else is keeping track either, probably. What other misery has Bush & Company bestowed on the Iraqi people? Oh well, just file it away with our other gifts to the world such as Agent Orange, and white phosphorus ...
Republicans en masse, unanimously, voted against the latest war spending bill. Remember those Republican complaints that Democrats don't support the troops, heard every time any Democrat voted against any war spending legislation during the Bush-Cheney era? All bullsh*t, but I can't imagine that this will startle anyone who reads Unknown News. Next time I'm annoyed at how little the Democrats are even trying to accomplish, I'll remember that six long years after the criminal war on Iraq started, just 32 members of the House had the courage to vote against continuing the war. Racists and Nazis are welcome in the US Army. Just like the Bush-Cheney administration, the Obama administration is blocking public access to logs of White House visitors. Orange County Weekly presents a pretty well-written introduction to one of the leading loons of the birther movement (the people who maintain that President Obama's birth certificate is faked or doesn't exist, and/or that he's actually a secret Kenyan or whatever). These people are really, really, really nuts.
From a speech she gave a year ago, it seems that Sonia Sotomayor's position is that Americans fingered by the President as "enemy combatants" have far fewer rights that other Americans. She's more opposed than David Souter, the justice she'll replace on the Supreme Court, to the notion that humans, even humans the Presidents says are "enemy combatants", have human rights. Defending her membership in an elite all-women's club, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor told senators that the group doesn't discriminate unfairly by gender and includes men in many of its
I may have some new form of dyslexia? Please tell me these men aren't upset with this woman for joining a club that excludes others... Oh the irony. US District Judge Samuel Kent (Bush41 1990) has been impeached for allegedly lying about sexual assaults of two women. Senator John Ensign (R-Nevada), a backbencher so far down the bench I'm not sure I've heard anything about him since he called for then-President Clinton to resign over an extramarital affair, has admitted to an extramarital affair. The coverage says Ensign is active in Promise Keepers, which I find hilarious. But don't dismiss the story as merely another Republican hypocrite with pecker problems. There were payments made to Ensign's lover, to her husband, to her son, all of which deserve scrutiny, and other Republican leaders could be snagged in the still-expanding revelations.
Rep Michelle Bachmann (R-Minnesota) says she won't answer questions in the upcoming census. That's illegal — cooperation with the census is required by law — but it's a relately minor offense compared to being kooky in Congress. Patrick Buchanan, Tony Blankley, Tom Tancredo, Phyllis Schlafly, and other prominent conservatives will share a podium with out racist Peter Brimelow, publisher of the notorious white might site vdare.com. The husband of Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) has admitted spending $150 to hire a hooker in Detroit. First of all, let's salute the guy for stimulating Michigan's depressed economy, and then let's add the obvious — that hiring a hooker ought to be nobody's business except the hooker and the customer, and when she finds out, the customer's spouse. Why are we spending tax dollars sending cops to arrest, prosecutors to charge, and jailers to punish people for what's simply capitalism in action? Seriously, why is prostitution illegal? Rookie Senator Roland Burris (D-Illinois), who's Rod Blagojevich's idea of a Senator and who's quickly established himself as one of the most clumsily corrupt politicians, won't face charges for his apparent perjury.
This sounds like a joke but it's true, and truly sad. The Obama administration, in its ongoing efforts to protect the Bush-Cheney administration from prosecution, lawsuits, and embarrassment, has argued in court that Ex-Veep Cheney's statements about his outting of CIA agent Valeria Plame must be kept secret, because Jon Stewart would joke about it on The Daily Show. It's my sincere hope that Jon Stewart makes a good joke out of that. Republicans are excited about President Obama's firing of Gerald Walpin as Americorps inspector general, but the more I look into it the less scandalous his firing seems to be. A Pennsylvania state senator, arguing for legislation to deprive gays of human rights, says that America is "allowing" gay people to exist. Habitat for Humanity has these great stores where you can buy household fixtures that have been rescued from demolished or remodeled housing. The stores are fun, even if you're not looking for anything. We bought some spare kitchen shelves at our local HfH store a few years ago, at a very reasonably price, even when you factor in the truck we had to rent to get the shelves to our apartment. Sir Paul McCartney suggests going vegetarian in a small way, with "meat-free Mondays". It's an interesting idea, and I give it a big thumbs up. I went vegetarian for several years in the 1990s, and while these days I enjoy a good Spam sandwich or bratwurst, I'm old enough that I can feel the effects of eating meat for days afterwards. Sparing you the details, I'll just say that the old bones creak a little less when I haven't eaten any meat than when I have. Also, you might be surprised how yummy a meal can be without animal flesh in a starring role.
In addition to being an inspiring story of one man who kept his wits while everyone around him was losing theirs, this report of heroics in Oregon started an old kiddie hymn playing in my mind, "I will make you fishers of men"... El Pollo Loco, a chain of chicken restaurants in several southwestern American states, is taunting Kentucky Fried Chicken over KFC's new "grilled" chicken, which uses beef ingredients in its marinade. "The use of beef ingredients in grilled chicken just seems wrong to me", says El Pollo Loco's president, "and we believe most consumers would agree. I can assure you that you won't find any beef in El Pollo Loco's fresh, natural, citrus-marinated chicken cooked over an open flame right in front of our guests." As someone who's eaten way too many fast food meals, I'll offer my expert opinion: El Pollo Loco serves pretty good chicken. KFC serves overpriced greasy dreck. Scientists discovered a previously-unknown bacteria in the frozen iciness of Greenland, and they're thawing it out to see what it does. I guess some of us haven't learned anything from scary science fiction movies.
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