Too late for a shredder

The AP awakens from its slumber long enough for Matt Apuzzo to slap down the Bushist deregulators and their favored lobbyists at the root of the mortgage crisis:

The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown...

Careful there, you might commit journalism!

(h/t R. Neal at KnoxViews)

No enemies to the right

One reason the frothing lunatic wingnuts believe there's a liberal media is that they are so far to the right that anything even in the conservative part of the mainstream looks liberal to them. Here's a comment on a story in the Knoxville News-Sentinel that dares to acknowledge the geological age of the earth:

One more example of the anti-God, extreme liberal bias at KNS.

It's really no surprise that this fundie has the handle GWB4Ever.

The KNS, by the way, is a completely Republican newspaper, though it remains lightly tethered to reality.

(h/t smalc on KnoxViews)

Savagery

The Mumbai terrorists tortured their victims, especially the Israelis.

The other doctor, who had also conducted the post-mortem of the victims, said: "Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed on the 26th itself. It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again," he said.

Yes, these animals are (were, actually) vile, nasty, bigoted, vicious war criminals. It's hard to feel bad about the response of Indian security forces:

The doctors who conducted the post mortem said ..., "Their faces were beyond recognition."

There was no way of identifying them," he said. Asked how, if this is the case, they knew the bodies were indeed those of the terrorists, he said: "The security forces that brought the bodies told us that those were the bodies of the terrorists," he said, adding there was no other way they could have identified the bodies.

An intelligence agency source added: "One of the terrorists was shot through either eye."

It's a sad and mirthless irony that the Islamist terrorists were defaced like the Buddhas at Bamiyan and many other ancient statues.

Savagery begat more savagery in Mumbai. Nor are our hands clean.

In Afghanistan, we did not pick out civilians for torture the way the Islamists in Mumbai did. What we did, however, was to outsource that to our surrogates on the ground, and they chose whoever they wanted for internment at Bagram or Guantánamo. But, other than by hopeless and indefinite confinement, we (probably) didn't torture the low value sources. We can be so proud that we picked our torture victims for cause, rather than randomly - or racistly (right, no anti-Muslim bigotry here!).

Then again, at Abu Ghraib, we tortured widely, including some who were obviously guilty of nothing more than petty crime. Including some for whom no guilt could be established to even a low standard. The Bushist myth is that this torture was not a matter of policy, but it's clear from the spread of techniques that the violated policy was the policy against photography. A few bad apples, my ass. But that's our rationalization.

Of course, at Guantánamo, Don Rumsfeld specifically approved escalating tortures to be used against individual prisoners. But at least he unleashed them narrowly.

Those who required more torture than that we outsourced again, bagging them and tagging them for rendition. We didn't know for sure what would happen to them. Of course, we're such innocents of the evil men can devise to break other men that we can't be held accountable for that. Which is why we had to render them to the torturers.

Our claims of national virtue in the Bushist age are very small and hang by very thin reeds of rationalization. In other more dangerous times, this was not always so. I'm not urging that all these acts have moral equivalence, but they're much closer to each other than I'm used to having to own up to.

Human beings are capable of savagery, not just some of us, but most, maybe all. I believe that I am, too. Deep inside there's a place of pain and fear that overrides sweet reason and sympathy and the morals we've been taught. That's why we have laws. Had.

That's why the least Obama can do is close Guantánamo.

How you're raised

Some people just need an age-appropriate incentive!

Click image for full Beth Cravens cartoon. You won't be sorry!

Careful what you wish for

I'm beginning to think that Norm Coleman might indeed prevail over Al Franken. The reason? The Star Tribune actually gave me what I wanted - a substantial number of ballots viewable on line and the promise of more.

Being the perseverative procrastinator that I am, this was a perfect way to avoid cleaning out the gutters, so I actually assessed all 598 ballots currently viewable. While my numbers differed from the consensus of other get-a-life idiots by a little, Franken still only netted six votes in my count. That's not fast enough, assuming it's representative. Nate Silver, who started me down this path, agrees.

This election was always going to wind up in court if Franken won. With the decision of the Canvassing Board not to review disqualified absentee ballots, it will also wind up in court if Franken loses.

The best outcome in any case: With a transparent process, the democratically elected winner, as best we can determine, will be seated in the Senate. That in itself is a victory, despite the fact that both sides are wasting a lot of time with bullshit challenges. Florida, of course, is not paying attention.

One other thing is obvious: There are voters on both sides who are wildly incapable of following the simplest instructions. That village in Texas? It's not the only one missing its idiot. There are citizens whose votes have never counted since optical scan voting started. I wonder how they get through the day without dying some gruesome accidental death. Were they sick every time their grade school gave a standardized test? Cripes, people. Nonetheless, even though I muttered "fucking idiot" under my breath with alarming frequency, I tried to find their intent and often did.

As Slappy the Squirrel often says, "That's comedy." Or democracy. Your mileage may vary.

Extremists need enemies

It's far from clear why Muslim terrorists attacked civilians in Mumbai, but extremists need enemies. Most of all, when under pressure, they need to share their enemies and their hatreds with the populations that they hide among.

It's easy to stir up long-standing secular and sectarian enmities between India and Pakistan. They're never far below the surface.

Even a war of words between these two nuclear powers will rally Pakistanis to all things Pakistani and all things Islamic, even terrorist organizations. That benefits all the terrorist groups that thrive on chaos.

The U.S. has enough electronic surveillance to know already where these terrorists attacked from. The NSA knows who took their calls in Waziristan. Whether we'll ever know is another question.

Good time for a brainy pundit

I feel just awful that David Broder is stumped about economics. Maybe that's why he likes John McCain so much.

Here's the thing: An effective media would feel obligated to come to grips with actual understanding of the issues. A real press corps wouldn't vacillate from ignorant scandal-mongering to ignorant hagiography. No, I don't need someone else to tell me how gosh-darn smart Barack Obama is, gee whillickers.

What I want from the press is what the blogosphere offers if you blow through enough chaff: a conscientious attempt to learn and analyze the issues and the people, to appeal to expertise when needed, but to put everything through a fine-grained bullshit detector.

What I get from the press: the attitude of middle school cheerleaders, who long since learned that smart is unpopular, who acquire dumbness - posed or not - for social purposes, who shrug in geometry class and steer the conversation to that really cute asshole cut-up football player who was really wasted out by the high tension lines after the game on Friday night. Their only expertise is personality, and frankly they get taken in by every insincere bullshit peddler who has a little flash.

So I guess I'm on my own. I do wish Broder would admit to his ignorance more often. Then maybe he'd give up his retirement in place and get off to addling his grandkids or the friends he could then meet up with every day for breakfast and coffee. Enough coasting on work he did fifty years ago.

(h/t Ahab)

The media thanks you

For all the politicians who have been caught in sex scandals in 2008, the media is thankful. Bill Schneider gets a jump on the boring rehash stories that elite journalists love to file in December so they can get on with their shopping and their holiday drinking. "Hey, I filed at ten this morning; I've got nothing else to do today."

But this one has a seasonal theme! His news hook is that politicos are turkeys. Ha ha. Good one! Get it?

Whenever anyone says anything kind about Bill Schneider's work, I'm going to think of bullshit packaged as news. How can he possibly list political turkeys of 2008 without Duhbya and Darth finishing one-two?

Instead, Obama makes the list. Twice! And one of them recycles the old presumption story about the Presidential seal knock-off. I guess it's obvious that the media are going to find their watchdog role, you know, the one they left in their other pants during the Bushist years.

Sarah Palin doesn't make the list at all, except when cast in a positive light. Must restrain fickle finger of fate! Must not tell the perfect story about political turkeys getting blood-drained. That would be too thematic. "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, having ditched her $150,000 RNC wardrobe and now once again accessorizing with a cup of joe (not the plumber), smiled and gabbed for the camera while Thanksgiving turkeys had their heads ground off in the background."

I guess Schneider filed even earlier than 10:00 a.m.

Oh, by the way, it's David Vitter watch, day 505. A known two-timing two-faced two time loser of a john still sits in the Senate.

Glass half full

In my personal life, I have much to be thankful for, but I'm not going to get into the details here. That posting would go on too long for anyone to read all the way to the end.

So, to my political thankfulness:

I'm thankful to live in a democracy, which for all its problems, is still functioning. I'm thankful not to suffer the fate of Cassandra, that the country has caught up and thrown off the scourge of Bushism, by a mandate-creating margin, although not by the deserved landslide. I'm thankful for the freedom to make all the noise I want about the things that are wrong or even those that should be better.

I'm thankful that Barack Obama appeared at just this moment in history. It is exceptionally rare that someone who is at once both insane and self-confident enough to want to be President is also so even and calm and brilliant as he is. Even more rare is that he appears to be able to assess his own weaknesses, which is why I think he's surrounding himself with all the old and experienced hands, even if they represent gradual change, rather than something more sudden and bracing.

I'm thankful that every single mark I put on my ballot this election was a vote that won. My head is still dizzy with that one. I put my strongest grassroots efforts into a local state rep race, and the very impressive candidate I helped won. She could have done it without me even though it was close, but she's the kind of person who sustains my belief in self-government.

I'm thankful that, despite growing trouble in every sector, the economy still employs me. I can still afford to live in and heat my home. I still eat well. I still have heath care.

There is a lot to be thankful for.

Not pressure enough by itself

But a body was missing in this case, and so was another element that former prosecutors and law enforcement officials said is crucial to solving a case: public pressure.

To solve the disappearance and presumed murder of a 5-year-old boy requires public pressure! It seems to me that the police in this case are bemoaning their own low expectations.

Signature standards

The Star-Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul analyzed 2700 rejected absentee ballots and found that a third of them were rejected due to signature problems. That's not exactly an objective criterion (say, the deadline for arrival or the requirement to have a witness). Most of these badly signed ballots are probably legitimate votes from legitimate voters whose signatures are simply variable.

The question: What appeal if any is available to overrule the opinion of the amateur graphologists in election offices?

A moment's pause

There's a lot more history than you and I learned in high school:

Our history is littered with bleak tableaus that show what happens when righteous certitude is mixed with fearful ignorance. Which is why this Thanksgiving, as we express gratitude for America’s bounty and promise, we would do well to reflect on all our histories, including a forgotten French one that began on Florida’s shores so many years ago.

This is another example of why we need separation of church and state. Even so, the present frequent mix of righteous certitude and fearful ignorance needs more than just the First Amendment.

Union hatred

Whenever there's a news story that touches on unions at all, the virulent union-haters show up in comments threads. They blame the union for everything that has gone wrong. The UAW pushed American automakers into mortal peril. Teachers' unions actively prevent public education.

Why? Why is union boss so much more fearsome than boss?

Unions are far from perfect, of course. So are governments. After the past eight years, that much is obvious. After eight years of President Obama, it will still be obvious, though less so. But corporations and other businesses are imperfect, too. They're human institutions, built and run by fallible people. Hell, even religious institutions are often deeply fallible, no matter whose descent and imprimatur they claim.

Point of another Mama Obama column

Ruth Marcus writes all kinds of stuff about Michelle Obama, but it all comes down to this:

She is, after all -- by résumé, anyway -- more Hillary than Jackie. But the painful paradox of campaign 2008 is that it came tantalizingly close to giving us an Ivy League-educated female lawyer in the Oval Office but yielded an Ivy League-educated female lawyer sketching out a supremely traditional first lady role.

Its meaning: This is Thanksgiving week and Marcus could write her column in an hour without the need for so much as a single phone call.

(h/t Atrios)

Two Senators

Gloria Borger takes John Boehner to task for whinging about the size of the stimulus that President-elect Barack Obama is already working toward.

[W]hen House Minority Leader John Boehner gripes, as he did Sunday in a same-old, same-old refrain that "the American people know that more Washington spending isn't the answer," the logical response is: OK, what do you suggest? Obama has already suggested tax cuts for the middle class, so you can't start with that. Got anything better to offer?

No, sorry. True as far as it goes, but Boehner is completely irrelevant. Why is Borger even quoting him? The logical response is, "Shut up." We don't need him. We don't want him. We've had waaay too much of his so-called ideas. He has a choice that hardly matters to policy: Vote against the stimulus and hope it fails or vote for it and try to steal some credit.

I hope that Obama will call Congress into session on the afternoon of Inauguration Day itself for final passage of the stimulus. If the Republicans want to filibuster that extraordinary event, broadcast live and worldwide, let 'em try. Even if we lose in both Minnesota and Georgia, we only need two Republican Senators, and it would be my guess that in the whole Republican caucus, there are at least two GOPers who don't want to be on the wrong side of this one.

And the media need to learn that psychotically ideological extremists like John Boehner are out of power. They might as well quote some alcoholic dickhead ranting along with talk radio. Oh, yeah, they still do that.

Since Al Franken's busy

Hannity and Colmes is now just Hannity. Big whoop. Even for Colmes, twelve years in an abusive marriage was enough.

AP reporter David Bauder must be floating his résumé inside Fox. Is there any other reason he would report this story as if the Fox News line were the slightest bit straight, instead of the usual Roger Ailes (the house of ill repute in this case) bullshit.

Silly me, I expect an honest reporter to acknowledge that Colmes has consciously been a designated victim and only a poser, not a real liberal. I mean, please, Al Franken could see it years ago, and he's in comedy.

How do you wield a frozen turkey?

I found this story hilarious - concussion by frozen poultry! Did the poltroon's head feel like it was full of giblet gravy afterward?

Invidious concern-trolling bullshit

David Frum's stock in trade is the division of Democrats. What he says is more instructive about him and his fellow Bushist Republicans than it is about us Democrats.

In short, he's describing the Obama administration as if it were run by a bunch of Republicans. But it isn't.

Gilded cage - with armor

The President can't be normal. The world has too many deadly things in it. The day is gone when a President could walk the streets in search of perspective, an unfiltered view, citizen contact, or even a little fresh air and exercise.

The public question (as opposed to Obama's questions about his own enjoyment of life) is how to live in the security bubble without entering an information bubble. Every President needs a kitchen cabinet of old and trusted friends who'll still tell him the truth, instead of whatever they think he wants to hear.

I'm thrilled to finally have a President who still plays hoops, and I think he should make sure not to lose that. Basketball is a great pot-stirring sport. Those of us who love it may have nothing else in common, but we do find common ground on the court.

Yes, we jaw and foul and hand-check and drop-step and put a little extra into the box out and argue and talk trash, too. And hack, most of all we hack. Then, we either create space and prove it, or we don't.

The President-elect needs space where he can be "plain old Barack," and the bosom of his family is essential but not enough. He should play competitive hoops regularly for as long as his body can stand it, which is unlikely to be eight more years.

And if no one else will D up and tell him to bring whatever weak shit he's got left, I'm available. Of course, I'm older than he is, so I probably wouldn't be the one who could prove it. But I'm not ever going to let him score. He'd have to earn it.

That's what makes a democracy different from a monarchy. And different from Bushism.

Shorter Brad Hirschfeld

When Saudi King Abdullah speaks about religious liberty, which he is manifestly opposed to, he's probably trying to ban blasphemy, which is an attack on religious liberty, but it's still a good thing because it's dialog.

My problem with this happy talk? I'm looking for more than lip service. Hiding legal mandates against certain thoughts in the dressy rhetoric of freedom doesn't seem like a positive under any circumstances.

Update: Philosoraptor provides a link to the Christian Science Monitor piece that started the conversation.