Thanks, I needed that

As a follow up to my post on Bush's imprompto massage of Chancellor Merkel, Laying on of Hands, the West Coast Version of Maureen Dowd, San Francisco Gate columnist Mark Morford provides his take on the incident in Bush Gropes, Planet Cringes / Knead a German chancellor, banter dumbly, reveal global ignorance. It's Dubya abroad!

As Morford says:

Now we know.

I mean, we sort of thought we knew, before, what kind of guy George W. Bush is, essentially our very own inept, inarticulate ex-alcoholic ex-frat-guy failed-businessman pseudo-leader who famously appeals to the most God-fearin' and least educated and least attuned among us because he is, well, one of them. We thought we had him pegged: Just a casual and aw-shucks sort of walkin', talkin', war-happy embarrassment to the country who was rumored to be a Genuinely Nice Guy in person but who, when he traveled abroad, nevertheless caused the entire nation to pre-emptively cringe in preparation for all sorts of imminent humiliations and lots of hilarious-yet-excruciating new material for "The Complete Bushisms."

But every so often we get a glimpse of just a little more. Or, rather, less. Of what lies just beneath that carefully controlled sheen of White House spin, what happens when Dubya is away from his handlers and his prefab scripts. We get a hint of just what fuels that clueless amble, that Chosen One bumble, that graceless and decidedly dorky sort of approach to everything from ordering a Diet Coke to comprehending Middle East chaos.

* * * *

Here is Dubya, strolling speedily into a G-8 summit meeting where powerful, intent world leaders are already gathered to discuss, presumably, serious issues of the day, walking straight up to a seated German Chancellor Angela Merkel and giving her a weird, unsolicited shoulder rub from behind, before dashing to his seat. Oh yes he did.

* * * *

Dubya is, of course, oblivious. His expression is his classic blank "Who, me?" stare that recalls a child caught eating a live grasshopper. He looks right past Merkel and quickly dashes away as though nothing had happened, as if the powerful German leader didn't just recoil visibly at his very touch.

* * * *

Some might argue that Merkel, despite the obvious recoil, actually smiles a little after Bush grabs her (it is a little difficult to tell if it's a wince or an awkward smirk -- either way, she was more than a little shocked). Some might even suggest that Merkel and Bush have a "special" sort of odd, chummy relationship . . . . And hey, maybe they're right. Then again, this was a G-8 summit. Israel and Lebanon are burning. Iraq is in tatters. North Korea is spitting on the world. Global leaders are gathered to discuss the most pressing and violent issues on the planet, many of which the Bush administration had a clammy hand in exacerbating. Might not be the best time for the leader of the free world to give a cheesy frat-guy neck rub to his German gal-pal in front of the world media. You think?

See, now we get it. This is the bottom line, the final truth, George W. Bush in a nutshell. Bush thinks he is That Guy. The one everybody just loves to have around, the one who sincerely thinks his goofy charm is so appealing and so innocuous and so licky-puppy friendly that he can get away with all sorts of casual infractions and weird gestures no one else would care to attempt lest they appear, you know, dorky as a pinwheel hat.

And you know what? Bush really is That Guy. Just not in the way he wants to think.

In other words, he is indeed That Guy, like the best man at the wedding party, the one standing out in the center of the room, casually and cluelessly telling off-color jokes that offend everyone but which he thinks are gul-dang hilarious and, hell, if you're offended then you're just some gul-dang hippie liberal. Haw.

He is That Guy. The one who thinks he is everybody's bestest pal, the guy everyone wants to kick back with and have a few brewskies and chat about baseball and lawn fertilizer and Jesus. After all, isn't that what we all desire of the man who decides some of the most difficult, deadly, complicated issues on the planet? Isn't that slacked, frat-guy goofiness exactly what you want trying to broker peace in the Middle East and understand global warming and stem-cell research? Sure it is.

Just watching Bush in those unguarded moments, chatting while eating a roll, walking by and grabbing Merkel in a shoulder "rub," you realize that Maureen Dowd and Mark Morford have truly described the Bush persona. And they speak truth, not truthiness.

See also: William Pitt at Truthout, The Ballad of Dumb George.

(Photo via Talking Points Memo)

Tags: Bush, G-8, Merkel

Happy Birthday Carlos

Carlos Santana
Born July 20, 1947

"Soul Sacrifice"
Live at Woodstock

And for more Santana:

2004 Montreux Jazz Festival -- Jazz Jam and Save the Children-- Live in Toyoko 1991 .

Tags: Carlos Santana, Music Video

Cartoon of the Day

* Jeff Danziger, NYTimes

Tags: Political Cartoons

Top 10 George W. Bush Moments

As a follow up to my previous post, Laying on of Hands, this Letterman clip is priceless.

Note # 6.

(Via Crooks and Liars)

Tags: Letterman, Video, Bush, Humor

Laying on of Hands

I wasn't going to comment on the various escapades at the G-8 until I read Maureen Dowd, who managed to distill the essence of Bush, in Animal House Summit:

Reporters who covered W.’s 2000 campaign often wondered whether the Bush scion would give up acting the fool if he got to be the king.

* * * *

The open-microphone incident at the G-8 lunch in St. Petersburg on Monday illustrated once more that W. never made any effort to adapt. The president has enshrined his immaturity and insularity, turning every environment he inhabits — no matter how decorous or serious — into a comfortable frat house.

No matter what the trappings or the ceremonies require of the leader of the free world, he brings the same DKE bearing and cadences, the same insouciance and smart-alecky attitude, the same simplistic approach — swearing, swaggering, talking to Tony Blair with his mouth full of buttered roll, and giving a startled Angela Merkel an impromptu shoulder rub. He can make even a global summit meeting seem like a kegger.

Catching W. off-guard, the really weird thing is his sense of victimization. He’s strangely resentful about the actual core of his job. Even after the debacles of Iraq and Katrina, he continues to treat the presidency as a colossal interference with his desire to mountain bike and clear brush.

In snippets of overheard conversation, Mr. Bush says he has not bothered to prepare any closing remarks and grouses about having to listen to other world leaders talk too long. What did he think being president was about?

* * * *

Perhaps it’s that anti-patrician chip on his shoulder, his rebellion against a family that prized manners and diplomacy above all. But when bored or frustrated, W. reserves the right to be boorish — no matter if the setting is a gilded palace or a Texas gorge.

Vanity Fair's James Wolcott, writes at his blog about the "groping" incident (seen here, Blitz Krieg Massage, on video), in Roving Hands:

Most of the commentary I've seen regarding President Bush's impromptu shoulder-rub/aborted massage of German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G8 summit has treated the incident as a light, wacky divertissement, much like Bush's goofball attempt to make a dramatic exit from a press conf in China only to be thwarted by a locked door. Certainly there's something intrinsically comic about a freelance prowling masseur looking for flesh to knead. Just last night I saw an episode from the Lifetime sitcom about a dating agency headed by the sensational Jane Lynch where one of the matchmakers was giving unauthorized foot rubs to clients, defending his behavior by claiming, "I can't keep track of all ten fingers." His hands see an opportunity, and they take it.

Bush's behavior crosses more boundaries, and not just because the Leader of the Free World doesn't normally lay his playful hands on the opposite sex in his high-powered public forums. Put simply, what Bush did is a very odd way for a married man to behave under most circumstances, even odder under these.

* * * *

Perhaps it was nothing more than Bush's usual privileged-snot appropriation at play. A symptom of the same syndrome that has him hanging nicknames on people, and kissing bald men on the head.

Blogger TBogg provides the practical perspective, in What Women Want:

As someone who has, you know, actually been with a woman (several in fact) I can point out that unsolicited neck-rubs as well as back-rubs aren't high on the touchy-feely list, although I will admit that they reside higher up than the ever popular boob-rub and the let-me-warm-my-hands-between-your-thighs move. And what appears to be smiling at the end might also be relief that Chester the Molester is looking elsewhere to cop a feel.

* * * *

Either way, having noticed Merkel's look of distaste at being publicly manhandled, I'm willing to bet that Bush later IM'd Dick Cheney and pronounced her a "total lez" and offered to fix her up with Mary.

And then, of course, for the last word on the subject, there's the Jon Stewart take on it all, at Merkel Madness.

See also, Hullabaloo and Firedoglake.

(Dowd article available here: Animal House Summit)

Tags: Bush, G-8, Jon Stewart, Video, Maureen Dowd, Animal House Summit

Super Fly

Next week, we're off to our annual family reunion with Dave's family, which is in Atlanta this year. I've started to prepare (mentally, as well as by packing my bags) for my next venture flying the unfriendly skies. As I explained in Fear of Flying, my flying phobia is not a "fear of flying," rather, it's due to the dread of dealing with airport "security measures" that brings home for me in a more personal way the fact that we have lost any modicum of our privacy rights.

That earlier post also described the harrowing experience of Edward Hasbrouck of the Practical Nomad, Unanswered questions at Dulles Airport, related to the need to provide ID to various "security personnel" at Dulles Airport, and the difficulties he experienced in merely trying to determine the identity and authority of those personnel. See also, Privacy advice to the Department of Homeland Security.

Hasbrouck has a follow up to his original post, Dialogue with the TSA Privacy Officer, which provides a response from Peter Pietra, the TSA Privacy Officer who looked into the incident, along with Hasbrouck's commentary and list of questions that were unanswered by the TSA Officer. A snippet:

[Pietra:] TSA requires airlines to request identification to confirm that the individual holding a boarding pass is the same individual issued the boarding pass.

As I reported, I had already shown my passport to a person who I believed to be an airline employee at check-in, and I volunteered to the person with the Airserv badge, and to "Mr. Graham", that I would be willing to show it again on demand of any United Airlines employee.

[Pietra:] It does not require airlines to prohibit entry to individuals who do not show identification but airline security plans may be more rigorous than TSA requirements.

To the best of my knowledge, I was never denied entry by "the airline", so this is of no relevance. Did you receive any information to the contrary from United Airlines, or anyone else?

[Pietra:] I find no privacy issues in your version of events. You had already shown identification at the ticket counter so you cannot have an objection to showing identification, (Emphasis added).

Do you mean to imply that, in your view of privacy, someone who is willing to show their passport to the airline must necessarily be willing to show it to anyone who asks for it? Or that a person who shows documents to an airline thereby waives any expectation of privacy in those documents, with respect to third parties?

Similarly, this report on NPR's Morning Edition, Cafeteria Workers Escape National Security Nightmare, provides yet another instance of the heavy hand of the security gestapo, as it tells the tale of two women who were longtime employees who were fired after they failed to pass a national security background check. See also, this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article on the incident, Homeland Security clears cafeteria workers after puzzling 2-week hiatus. The employees were deemed "unsuitable" and terminated, despite the fact that each had worked for over twenty year in the cafeteria in a Pittsburgh federal building. It took the intervention of their local congressman to determine that one report was the result of an erroneous social security number (which was the fault of Homeland Security) and the other due to not divulging a 1985 shoplifting charge that had been expunged. Sure signs of terrorist proclivities.

It's like the "No Fly List." You can't find out if you're on it. If you are, you won't be told why. Even worse, you may not be able to get off. See, the Practical Nomad, New York Times on "Getting off a watch list". Quoted in the NYTimes article, Hasbrouck states:

"The model is flawed," he said. "People should only be placed on the list based on an order from a court of competent jurisdiction following an adversarial evidentiary hearing. The burden of proof should be on the government to show that someone is dangerous, not the other way around."

These are just various examples of our loss of privacy rights. We may as well just send the Bill of Rights to the shredder. Under the new regime the rules have changed in a dramatic, fundamental way. In today's world, you are presumed guilty until proven otherwise. The problem is, you are not given prior notice of the "charges" against you, or an opportunity to challenge the allegations.

That's so yesterday. That's the old model of democracy. We now live with the New World Order: Just take orders. No questions asked.

Tags: Civil Liberties, TSA, Homeland Security

Murder is Wrong

George Bush is prepared to invoke his first veto while in office, after the Senate approved legislation permitting stem cell research. According to the NYTimes, Senate Approves a Stem-Cell Bill; Veto Is Expected:

Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, said Tuesday that the president would veto the measure because of his belief that federal money should not be spent on research conducted on stem cells derived from human embryos. Mr. Snow said Mr. Bush considered that murder.

"“The president is not going to get on the slippery slope of taking something that is living and making it dead for the purpose of research,"” he said.

In Most call it hope for millions, Bush calls it "murder", Dick Polman of American Debate explains:

The Republican-led Senate has spoken -- today, by a 63-37 vote, it passed a bill expanding federally-financed stem cell research --and now President Bush must decide whether he sides with the religious and social conservatives who oppose that research, or with the clear majority of his fellow citizens.

Actually, he has already made up his mind -- his heart is with his political base -- which means that, when he issues the first veto of his presidency, he will be defying the medical community, the scientific community, 41 Nobel laureates, hundreds of citizen health groups, Nancy Reagan, and the millions of Americans who see value in doing the advanced research that could pioneer new treatments for serious diseases.

* * * *

Bush has long viewed his willingness to defy majority sentiment as an asset; in the words of press secretary Tony Snow the other day, "People like leadership much better than a finger in the wind." But in this case, the leader has misrepresented some of the facts. Bush claimed, in a White House message the other day, that the stem-cell bill "would use Federal taxpayer dollars to support and encourage the destruction of human life for research."” In reality, the stem cells covered by the bill have been specifically created for in-vitro fertilization, are no longer needed and, if not used for research purposes, would be discarded anyway as medical waste. Frist also described the bill this way, in a Washington Post op-ed column this morning.

But the White House is not interested in such nuance; as Snow put it today, "the simple answer is, he thinks murder's wrong."

On this issue, Pennsylvania's Senators Mutt & Jeff (a/k/a Santorum and Specter), are divided by more than the opposite ends of the state. See Rick and Arlen on Stem Cells. It's amazing how resolute Specter can be in his position when his own self interest is at stake. Calling embryos persons deserving of the protection of law, Santorum doesn't explain how his absolute, unwavering respect for life does not also mean that he is a pacifist or death penalty opponent.

In MAKE WAR, NOT CURE: BUSH TO SEND EMBRYOS TO IRAQ, the Satirical Political Report explains the real reason Bush is opposed to embryonic research:

As Congress prepares this week to debate expanded public funding of embryonic stem cell research, President Bush has reaffirmed his staunch opposition, explaining that such embryos could be put to much better use in Iraq.

Explaining that embryos should be "“killed there, instead of here,"” the President emphasized that the military is at its breaking point in Iraq, and that crucial reinforcements are desperately needed, especially with looming crises in the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula.

* * * *

Bush further claimed that his religious principles will not allow him to sanction the destruction of innocent embryos, even to help cure debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer'’s and Parkinson'’s. "“However,"” Bush explained, "“if we have to sacrifice embryos to support religious extremism and theocracy, that'’s another matter altogether."”

* * * *

However, polls show that 70% of Americans not only support greater federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, but the harvesting of Bush'’s organs, while he is still alive, if it can help cure a single individual.

Even better than harvesting his organs, if there is any justice in the world (or if my God, rather than the Bush version, is really in charge), George Bush will have a long life, will live to a ripe old age, and would also be blessed with one of those diseases that could have been cured but for the ban on stem cell research. It would be perfect poetic justice.

Tags: Bush, Politics, Stem Cell Research

Mutt & Jeff

Pennsylvania. Home to the Dynamic Duo -- Santorum & Specter.

Rick Santorum may be living proof of the maxim "you can't go home again." This national AP story, Santorum struggles for support at home, reports:

Dissatisfaction with President Bush and the GOP-controlled Congress in the swing state creates obstacles for Santorum. Further complicating his outlook are lingering questions on his home turf of southwest Pennsylvania over his residency and use of public funds for his children's cyber schooling.

A recent Quinnipiac University Poll showed Santorum to be less popular in Pittsburgh and its surrounding suburbs — he hails from Penn Hills, Pa. — than any other part of Pennsylvania. He trailed his opponent by around 30 percentage points there. Statewide, the poll had him down by 18 points, with a whopping 67 percent of voters saying they've made up their minds.

Looking to turn the tide, Santorum has focused on the danger of illegal immigration, highlighting a "no amnesty" message that could appeal to rank-and-file union members from southwest Pennsylvania and others concerned about holding their jobs. While the region is less dependent on coal and steel, manufacturing remains an important part of the economy. (Emphasis added).

Santorum is doing worse in Pittsburgh than the rest of the state? That is stunning to me. And his answer to that? Run on racism.

Turning to the other end of the state, calling "his bill on NSA surveillance is a capitulation to administration claims of executive power," an editorial from the Washington Post, Wiretap Surrender, takes Arlen Specter to task:

SENATE JUDICIARY Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) has cast his agreement with the White House on legislation concerning the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance as a compromise -- one in which President Bush accepts judicial review of the program. It isn't a compromise, except quite dramatically on the senator's part. Mr. Specter's bill began as a flawed but well-intentioned effort to get the program in front of the courts, but it has been turned into a green light for domestic spying. It must not pass. (Emphasis added).

In Arlen Specter: The Manchurian Senator, the Anonymous Liberal expresses astonishment at media reports of a "compromise" by the Bush Administration with the Specter legislation. However, he describes the benefits of the concession spin:

But by spinning this as some sort of capitulation on the President's part, both sides win. Specter is able to paint himself as the heroic maverick who stood up to the White House, and the White House is able to portray its dream surveillance law as something the President only reluctantly agreed to. Has anyone in the media ever read the story of Brer' Rabbit and the briar patch? The White House would like nothing better than for the media to treat this bill as some sort of moderate compromise, which is why they are pushing this particular narrative so hard.

. . . . Specter's bill would render meaningless the statutory scheme that has been in place for the last three decades. It would instantly return us to the pre-FISA era of unfettered executive branch discretion. Seriously, if Specter had been a Manchurian candidate owned and operated by the White House, he could scarcely have done more to further their objectives.

* * * *

It will be truly ironic if the Bush administration is rewarded for its law-breaking with a bill that, as recently as six months ago, no one would ever have dreamed had a snowball's chance in hell of gaining Congressional approval. This is a strategy that the GOP has mastered. First you take a position that is so outrageous and extreme that it catches everyone off guard. You then advocate for that position so stubbornly and so aggressively that, before long, you've made a lot of formerly extreme positions seem moderate by comparison. Eventually you agree to a "compromise" that replaces the status quo with something that just a short time earlier would have seemed unthinkable. It's amazing how effective this strategy is at shifting the basic terms of the debate.

I believe the offical terminology used to describe Arlen is Gutless Republican Worm.

Tags: PA politics, Arlen Specter, Rick Santorum, Politics

On Religion

George Carlin

See also: The Ultimate Bullshit

Tags: George Carlin, Religion, Humor, Video

Cartoon of the Day

* Richard Crowson, The Witchita Eagle

Tags: Political Cartoons

Not a Fit Night for Man Nor Beast

Hurricane Katrina was a devastating catastrophe, with loss of life and home affecting many in New Orleans and elsewhere in the region. The continuing toll is enormous, and whether New Orleans will ever recover to any substantial degree is still uncertain -- the effects of the storm linger to this day.

A "human interest" tale of one of the Katrina aftereffects was told in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Tug-of-war erupts over Katrina pets, but the damage inflicted in this case is wholly man-made. As the story notes:

Sheila Combs lost nearly everything in Hurricane Katrina: her home, her possessions, her job and - what really broke her heart - her 2-year-old mutt, Rocket.

Combs assumed that the chow-Finnish Spitz mix had died after she, her mother and her 9-year-old son were evacuated from New Orleans to the Houston Astrodome.

So it seemed to be a miracle last month when a volunteer group seeking to reunite Katrina pets with their masters discovered Rocket alive and flourishing in Doylestown.

Except that the pooch isn't Rocket anymore - he's Rusty. And his new owners have no intention of giving him back.

The resulting tug-of-war is among dozens of cases nationwide in which allegations of class bias have been raised by Katrina survivors attempting to reclaim beloved pets from the Good Samaritans who took them in.

"It's almost entirely a movement of animals from poor blacks to middle-class whites," said Steven Wise, a Florida animal-rights lawyer involved in several custody battles.

* * * *

Wise . . . said it's hard to understand why the animals aren't being turned over.

"These people lost everything," Wise said of the hurricane victims. "The only thing they have is their family, and these dogs are their family."

In the stories after the storm, I remember reading about people being forced to leave their pets and the pain it caused many. Some people didn't want to leave their homes because they couldn't take their pets with them. Most shelters would not permit pets, so the evacuees were forced to abandon their pets.

To learn that some of the "Good Samaritans" who took in rescued pets are now depriving these people, who have lost all, one more thing of value to them -- their beloved pets -- is disheartening. They should be ashamed and embarrassed by their cruel, selfish behavior. But of course that is not the case. Rather than turning inward, they blame the victim, and try to excuse and justify their conduct by judging the victim as someone who is not deserving. No doubt good Christians all.

Put this under example #3451 of "man's inhumanity to man." See e.g.,RIP, GOP (An Exhortation).

Tags: Hurricane Katrina, Stealth Rescue

Cartoon of the Day

* Ann Telnaes

Tags: Political Cartoons

Honor Thy Father & Mother

That was the reason given by Louis Capano for pledging $1M to two Delaware Catholic schools, Archmere and St. Edmond's Academy -- the donations were in honor of his parents. See e.g., my earlier post on this story, In My Name. The Capano name is "infamous" because one of the Capano brothers, Tom, murdered Anne Marie Fahey. In the incestuous way that is the state of Delaware, members of both families attended both schools. One school, Archmere, later reconsidered its decision.

As The News Journal explained, Archmere announces building's new name, "Archmere Academy, whose $1 million deal to name a new building after developer Louis J. Capano Jr.'s parents unraveled under intense pressure from parents and alumni, will name the center after two former headmasters." The Inquirer described it, in Capanos to get plaque at Del. school:

Two weeks ago, in the face of local and national media coverage and a barrage of criticism on a Web site formed by parents, Archmere trustees accepted Capano's offer to relinquish naming rights. Since then, board members have been negotiating a solution that would appease both Capano and protesters.

See also, Protect Archmere's Legacy.

At the time, I wondered what would happen to the pledge, No Name, No Money?. Now we know. The Inquirer reports:

And developer Louis Capano Jr., who had pledged $1 million to the school in exchange for having the planned student-life center named after his parents, has dropped his foundation's pledge from $1 million to $500,000. Archmere Academy officials said they would honor Capano's parents with a plaque, one of three to be placed outside the building for donors of at least $200,000.

Wasn't the contribution supposed to be in memory of his parents? Right. If so, why would a name of a building alter the charitable impulse? If that was the reason for the donation, why the change in the amount given? As Honest Hypocrite put it, The "Integrity" costs Archmere a half mil, while crafty Capano slips parents' names onto a plaque for $200,000. I suppose the only good thing is that perhaps Louis Capano learned that money can't buy everything, especially a good name or reputation. As I have been wont to say, a good reputation is something that takes a lot of time and effort to get, but is very easy to lose.

The News Journal also carried a well done retrospective on Anne Marie Fahey on the anniversary of her murder,10 years later, memories of murder persist.

The other day, the LWL Gang* discussed the Fahey case, along with a few other of those cases that seem to live on. The News Journal piece discusses that phenomenon:

Ben Fleury-Steiner, assistant professor at the University of Delaware's Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, attributes the continuing fascination -- and ill-will toward Capano and his brothers -- to our culture's obsession with crimes by celebrities or others with status. That is compounded by the fact that Delaware is such a small state and so many people know the key players, he said.

"People have hung on every detail,'' he said, "and it has become a Shakespearean drama.''

*(Ladies Who Lunch)

Tags: Delaware, Thomas Capano, Anne Marie Fahey, Archmere

Cartoon of the Day

*Gary Markstein

Tags: Political Cartoons

If Only

The Summer 2006 issue of Nieman Reports is dedicated to "Journalists: On the Subject of Courage." Nieman Watchdog describes a Commentary piece, Fighting back against the PR presidency: "Veteran Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus thinks that Washington editors and reporters should be brave enough not to cover any statements made by the president or any other government official that are designed solely as a public relations tool, offering no new or valuable information to the public."

In his Commentary, Pincus writes:

Courage in journalism today takes all the obvious, traditional forms -- reporting from a war zone or from a totalitarian country where a reporter's life or safety are issues. In Washington, D.C., where I work, it's a far less dramatic form of courage if a journalist stands up to a government official or a politician who he or she has reason to believe is not telling the truth or living up to his or her responsibilities.

But I believe a new kind of courage is needed in journalism in this age of instant news, instant analysis, and therefore instant opinions. It also happens to be a time of government by public relations and news stories based on prepared texts and prepared events or responses. Therefore, this is the time for reporters and editors, whether from the mainstream media or blogosphere, to pause before responding to the latest bulletin, prepared event, or the most recent statement or backgrounder, whether from the White House or the Democratic or Republican leadership on Capitol Hill.

* * * *

Today there is much too much being offered about government than can be fit into print or broadcast on nightly news shows. The disturbing trend is that more and more of these informational offerings are nothing but PR peddled as "news."

* * * *

The truth of the matter is that with help from the news media, being able to "stay on message" is now considered a presidential asset, perhaps even a requirement. Of course, the "message" is the public relations spin that the White House wants to present and not what the President actually did that day or what was really going on inside the White House.

* * * *

A new element of courage in journalism would be for editors and reporters to decide not to cover the President's statements when he -- or any public figure -- repeats essentially what he or she has said before. The Bush team also has brought forward another totally PR gimmick: The President stands before a background that highlights the key words of his daily message. This tactic serves only to reinforce that what's going on is public relations -- not governing. Journalistic courage should include the refusal to publish in a newspaper or carry on a TV or radio news show any statements made by the President or any other government official that are designed solely as a public relations tool, offering no new or valuable information to the public.

If only.

The "role" of the media is a constant theme of mine. See, e.g., Put down the steno pad. Add this Commentary to the List; it should be required reading for every reporter and journalist, as well as those interested in an informed public.

(Via Talking Points Memo)

Tags: Commentary, Journalism, News and Media, Politics

Seashells by the Seashore

Even though I was not born in Philly, I am a true Philadelphian in one sense at least. I love the shore. I've been to at least a half a dozen countries in Europe, as well as Mexico, Canada and a number of island retreats, but I love the Jersey shore. Every year, we trek to the Jersey shore for our annual "fun in the sun" vacation. In fact, I met my husband Dave at the Jersey shore 35 years ago (see Oh Happy Day) this month.

Over the years, I have covered many shore points -- from Long Beach Island to Cape May. Since our daughter was little, we have adopted Sea Isle City as our spot. Sea Isle is the perfect spot for us -- low key, relaxing, family-oriented. People often ask why we don't go to Stone Harbor or Avalon instead. This article in the Philadelphia Inquirer , For some in Stone Harbor, Peter Max's art is not bliss, sums up precisely why. As the piece says:

In Stone Harbor, a beach town that fancies itself more Nantucket than Sea Isle, a place where the surf shop sells Polo and Ralph Lauren, where the cheese shop carries five varieties of Stilton and people cash $100 bills to buy a loaf of bread, a town whose palette comfort-zone ranges from pink to lime green, there is, in some quarters, a bit of a Peter Max problem.

* * * *

Peter Max has been spreading his groovy brand of art-love in Stone Harbor for the last several summers, setting up shop at the Ocean Galleries over Fourth of July weekend, selling a commemorative poster to benefit the Wetlands Institute down the causeway. He has donated artwork for the annual auction.

This summer - in a move described by some as a gift of gratitude to the town, by others as another in an endless arsenal of successful publicity stunts - Max launched an attempt to remake the water tower off 96th Street in his colorful image.

Reaction from locals?

"I think it's cartoons, and it's cute and bright and cheerful, but he compares himself to Andy Warhol. I think that's a bit ridiculous. The legitimate art world in New York thinks [Max] is a joke. I'm not being elitist by saying that. It's suitable for Atlantic City. Stone Harbor is not flashy."

* * * *

"What was once a lovely, serene, family-welcoming town seems to be doing a 'makeover,' " wrote one person to the must-read Spout-Off section of the Cape May County Herald. "First, with a 'Hooters' (in everything but name) and now a cartoon art form plastered on the water tower. We're moving from tasteful to 'tacky.' "

Then there is Sea Isle City. Unlike most shore towns, with parking tickets handed out in tandem with beach tags, Sea Isle gives more warnings than tickets for those expired meters, as the Inquirer attests in Is this heaven?

Ah yes. For me, Sea Isle -- you're the place to be. And I have the sweatshirt to prove it.

(Poster via Peter Max)

Tags: Peter Max, Stone Harbor, Sea Isle City

Flaunt v. Flout Redux

I had to chuckle when I read this post by blogger SpinDentist at the All Spin Zone, "“Flouts,"” Not "“Flaunts"”. Citing this quotation from Ron Paul, a Republican Representative from Texas:

And this: "“Congress has generously ignored the Constitution while the President flaunts it, the courts have ignored it and they get in the business of legislating so there's no respect for the rule of law."”

SpinDentist bemoaned the fact that "Paul misuses the word "“flaunt"” in one of those quotes, and it is one of my biggest pet peeves." He also chastised the website, Afterdowningstreet.org, which reprinted the quote without use of "[sic]" to note the misuse of the word. The Philadelphia blogger conceded: "Call me elitist, call me a nitpicker, but Ron Paul is a fucking Congressman and should know how to speak English! Heck, he probably couldn't properly order a cheesesteak here in Philly."

I have mentioned before, in Alito is All That, that I clerked for the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals after law school. My clerkship was with Judge Joseph Weis, who is now a Senior Judge on the Court. One of the highlights of my tenure was the brouhaha that ensued when the Judge was the subject of a Bill Safire "On Language" column in 1981.

In the September 13, 1981 NY Times article, captioned "In re Flaunt v. Flout," Safire opined:

In defining ''willfulness'' in connection with violating a law, Judge Joseph F. Weis Jr. of the Third Circuit wrote: ''Willfulness connotes defiance of such reckless disregard of consequences as to be equivalent to a knowing, conscious and deliberate flaunting of the Act.''

Flaunt? Hardly. To flaunt is ''to display ostentatiously''; to flout means ''to show contempt for,'' akin to the noun ''flute,'' from the whistle of derision.

Safire then observed that several other courts also took note of the error when citing the Judge's opinion in that case. In fact, "the Ninth Circuit joined in the controversy, not only disagreeing with the willfulness decision but the flaunting thereof: It quoted the errant Third Circuit's flaunt and inserted after it in brackets the word sic, Latin for ''thus,'' which means ''precisely reproduced even though wrong.''' Safire continued:

I petitioned Judge Weis in Pittsburgh, where the Third Circuit sits: Is he the linguistic equivalent of ''Turn 'em loose, Bruce''? Arguendo, is he flaunting his use of ''flaunt'' to flout convention? On what does he bottom his opinion? Here is the judge's response:

DEAR MR. SAFIRE: Some years ago Judge Learned Hand wrote, ''(I)t is one of the surest indexes of a mature and developed jurisprudence not to make a fortress out of the dictionary ... .'' Nevertheless, when I am beleaguered by my colleagues who (sic)'d and ''...'' my use of that perfectly good word ''flaunt,'' I must take my station behind Webster's Third.

Before I wrote my second opinion defending the use of the word and mildly reproving my intolerant brethren, Babcock & Wilcox Co. v. OSHRC, 622 F. 2d 1160 (3d Cir. 1980), I sought support from the publishers of the dictionary. The editorial director responded by citing reputable authors and said, ''(E)ven the writers who comment unfavorably on this use of flaunt indicate that it is widespread. For these reasons, the editors of the Third judge this use to be established in the language and entered it without stigma.''

Much less charitable, I must say, is Thomas H. Middleton's reference to a possible etymological bond between the two words in the March 1981 issue of Saturday Review: ''That would simply imply that flaunt has more than just a bonehead relationship with flout. It might be flout's illegitimate child and the flaunt-flout confusion becomes evermore understandable.''

For shame! Do the flout forces know no limit to their campaign of vilification? Are you not aware that in a series of cases the Supreme Court has championed the rights of illegitimates to share in the benefits of our society? See, e.g., Trimble v. Gordon, 430 U.S. 762 (1977).

In his inimitable style, the Judge got the last word on the subject:

Will I give up on flaunt? By no means. Even at the risk of being labeled a loose constructionist, I shall stand my ground against what I consider to be a formidable assault on judicial independence. John Marshall withstood the attacks of Thomas Jefferson, and I trust that I shall survive my battle with the flout forces. Respectfully yours, JOSEPH F. WEIS Jr. P.S. I reserve the right to use flout if I choose.

I can remember that the Judge dedicated as much time and attention to that letter as he did to his opinions -- and enjoyed every minute of doing it. Unlike what is often said of many judges, Judge Weis personally wrote every opinion he authored. We did the research and wrote bench memos, but he drafted the opinion himself. We may have reviewed and edited the draft over several versions with him, but the final product was all his.

He was the perfect role model for a new lawyer. Which is why the "Weis guys" (as his former Clerks are called) still get together with the Judge several times a year when he's in Philadelphia for a court sitting. Some people come from New York, New England and Maryland, along with those of us who are local, to wine & dine with the Judge (we wine, he dines).

Of course, my musings aren't meant to flaunt these facts.

You Gotta Have Faith

Ron Suskind, author of "The One Percent Doctrine," discussed at One Percent Rules, was interviewed by Stephen Colbert, Evidence, What's That?. It's a definite "don't miss."

A few gems:

The problem with evidence is that it doesn't always support your opinion.

Isn't the Bush Administration's leadership a lot like religion, you just have to have faith that they're going to do the right thing.

Tags: Stephen Colbert, Ron Suskind, Bush, Video

Cartoon of the Day

(This is a definite must for my Blog Logo)

* Paul Conrad, LA Times

Tags: Political Cartoons

Cartoon of the Day

* Tom Toles, Washington Post

Tags: Political Cartoons

Over the Cliff

Keith Olbermann and Jon Stewart both interviewed John Dean, infamous Watergate personality and Nixon White House counsel, about his new book, Conservatives Without Conscience. See Countdown and Daily Show.

The interviews are as fascinating as they are terrifying; a discussion of the "authoritarian" personality, which defines the core of the right wing of the Republican party. Dean says that he studied and pondered questions like: Why did the people of Italy and Germany follow Mussolini and Hitler. Could that ever happen here? He then concluded that unfortunately, it could happen here, although he believes that we're at "the Proto-fascist stage, we're not there yet." Dean also talks about the need to have a common enemy -- the Liberals -- to coalesce the conservatives and that the Bush Administration has worked to legitimate the authoritarianism in government and have taken it to an extreme that we've never seen in the US.

Daily Kos summarizes:

According to his findings, a vast majority of Conservatives are drawn into the Leader/Follower archetype, where the Leaders are considered infallible, and the loyalty of the Followers is completely unshakable. About "23% of the populace falls into the follower category" said Dean. "These people are impervious" to fact, rationality and reality. And their "Numbers are growing".

Dean refers to this 23% core group, who have tremendous influence over Republican politics, as the people who will "march over the cliff." I have also noted this phenomena within the Republican party, calling them the "Stepford Party" because of the control exerted to require members to act in lockstep fashion and do as they are told, see, e.g., Imagine that.

See also, blogger the new down, John Dean warns we are close to fascism.

As the BookList review at Amazon describes:

Dean takes a sincere, well-considered look at how conservative politics in the U.S. is veering dangerously close to authoritarianism, offering a penetrating and highly disturbing portrait of many of the major players in Republican politics and power. Looking back on the development of conservative politics in the U.S., Dean notes that conservatism is regressing to its authoritarian roots. Dean draws on five decades of social science research that details the personality traits of what are called "double high authoritarians": self-righteous, mean-spirited, amoral, manipulative, bullying. He concludes that Chuck Colson, Pat Robertson, Newt Gingrich, and Tom DeLay are all textbook examples. Dean calls Vice-President Cheney "the architect of Bush's authoritarian policies," and deems Bush "a mental lightweight with a strong right-wing authoritarian personality." Dean maintains that conservatives without conscience have produced such a hostile, noncollegial environment in Congress that threats of resistance through filibusters have been met with threats of a "nuclear option" and that conservatives have used fearmongering about terrorist attacks to the point where the nation faces a greater threat of relinquishing its ideals of democracy.

UPDATE: Will Bunch of Attytood has an excellent analysis of the media's role in the "fearmongering" tactic employed by the Bush Administration, as noted by Dean. In his post, A plea to America's news directors and editors: Cancel Bush's "Fear Factor", Bunch notes:

[S]ince Sept. 11, 2001, the media has become a giant amplifier, not a filter. When the subject is "the war on terror," no development is too small for wall-to-wall "breaking news" coverage, or a front-page scoop.

* * * *

So why does the media fall for bogus or misleading terror stories, Charlie-Brown-football-like, time after time? One answer is clearly: It works. The aftermath of 9/11 was the high water mark for cable news in terms of ratings, and it's hard to let go of that. A newspaper like the New York Daily News, which broke the vague "financial district plot" last week, was surely glad to "scoop" the New York Times on the terror beat. What's more, there is the acceptance of the notion that combating terrorism is indeed "a war," which merits amped up "war coverage."

But news outlets have another. more important role: To be responsible. Terror fears have warped the American political debate, from clearing the way for an unjust war in Iraq to papering over White House scandals. That type of influence is something that goes well beyond ratings. CNN would also get lots more viewers if Carol Costello or Anderson Cooper read the news in the buff, but that wouldn't be very appropriate. Scaring the American public needlessly, we'd argue, is a much greater sin.

(Transcript available here: Countdown with Keith Olbermann.)

Tags: Countdown, Daily Show, Jon Stewart, Keith Olbermann, John Dean, Video

----------
Absence of conscience doesn't necessarily mean evil. It means the ability to set aside what's right and wrong. --John Dean

Cartoon of the Day

* Matt Davies, The Journal News

Tags: Political Cartoons

Quote of the Day

Jean Kerr

Born July 10, 1923
Scranton, PA

You don't seem to realize that a poor person who is unhappy is in a better position than a rich person who is unhappy. Because the poor person has hope. He thinks money would help.

Author: Please Don't Eat the Daisies
For other quotes, see: Jean Kerr Quotes

UDATE: And here's her childhood home in Scranton: Please Don't Eat The Daisies.

Tags: Jean Kerr, Scranton

Wake Up Little Susie


The Comcast Video Saga

I've wanted to post on this for a while, but haven't had the chance. Both the Philadelphia Inquirer, Video gives Comcast another wake-up call, and the NY Times, Your Call Is Important to Us. Please Stay Awake., have covered the story of the law student who posted a a video of a sleeping Comcast repairman on the internet.

After the video received wide attention, Comcast sent a team out to fix the problem, as was noted on his website, Snakes on a Blog. Comcast, of course, handled the embarrassing incident in typical corporate scapegoat fashion -- they fired the repairman, rather than looking inward at its lousy customer repair service record.

Tags: Comcast, Video

Cartoon of the Day

* Signe Wilkerson, Washington Post

Tags: Political Cartoons

This King's OK

Last night we went to the Academy of Music to see Lion King with friends, along with Moe, Larry & Curly (a/k/a, the Three Stooges -- my daughter & her 2 best buddies). Nice evening -- good food (family style dinner at Maggiano's), good show & good friends.

The Lion King is a truly enjoyable show. I concur with the review in Philadelphia City Paper, King of the Jungle:

Under the hot African sun, two enormous giraffes amble by. Surely this is one of the great curtain-up images in modern theater history, and the audience greets it with a shout—not the cynical huzzah reserved for chandeliers and helicopters, but genuine joy in the face of true art. (I'm sure many theatergoers at the Academy were seeing Lion King for the fifth or even 10th time, but the power remains.)

And it's not just giraffes. There are gazelles, cheetahs, even elephants and of course lions—all courtesy of the remarkable visual imagination of Julie Taymor, Lion King's director and so much more. You see, Taymor also designed the costumes and (with Michael Curry) the astonishing masks and puppets that are the basis of Lion King's visual world. Let me reiterate what many have already said—you will be simply knocked out by what Taymor does, as she creates creatures that are at once animal, human and iconic. In critic's school, they teach us never to use the word "genius"—but what Taymor does here is the closest thing to it.

* * * *

I should report that Lion King fares very well in its opulent Philadelphia incarnation. The cast is fully up to every challenge, especially L. Steven Taylor (Mufasa, the father-king), Chaunteé Schuler (Nala, the love interest) and the clarion-voiced Phindile Mkhize (Rafiki, who serves a double-function as narrator and a kind of prophetess).

We've seen Lion King several times, although my recollection when we saw the Broadway Show was a bit off. I thought it was 2-3 years ago, while Dave thought it was 10 years ago. Our daughter remembered seeing it, and she said she was in 6th Grade.

My calendar on my Palm Pilot goes back 10 years, so I did a search & it was October of 2000. Young memory wins.

Be All That You Can Be

The "New Army" may be sporting "Brownshirts" soon as the uniform of choice. The NYTimes reports, in Hate Groups Are Infiltrating the Military, Group Asserts, on the newest recruitment tool of the all volunteer army:

A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed "large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists" to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization.

* * * *

The report said that neo-Nazi groups like the National Alliance, whose founder, William Pierce, wrote "The Turner Diaries," the novel that was the inspiration and blueprint for Timothy J. McVeigh's bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, sought to enroll followers in the Army to get training for a race war.

The groups are being abetted, the report said, by pressure on recruiters, particularly for the Army, to meet quotas that are more difficult to reach because of the growing unpopularity of the war in Iraq.

* * * *

An article in the National Alliance magazine Resistance urged skinheads to join the Army and insist on being assigned to light infantry units.

The Southern Poverty Law Center identified the author as Steven Barry, who it said was a former Special Forces officer who was the alliance's "military unit coordinator."

"Light infantry is your branch of choice because the coming race war and the ethnic cleansing to follow will be very much an infantryman's war," he wrote. "It will be house-to-house, neighborhood-by-neighborhood until your town or city is cleared and the alien races are driven into the countryside where they can be hunted down and 'cleansed.' "

He concluded: "As a professional soldier, my goal is to fill the ranks of the United States Army with skinheads. As street brawlers, you will be useless in the coming race war. As trained infantrymen, you will join the ranks of the Aryan warrior brotherhood."

As Blue Force put it:

Turning a blind eye to neo-Nazis joining the military under any circumstances would be extremely bad policy (that's an understatement). Anyone remember that Timothy McVeigh guy? But doing so at a time when our military is engaged in two separate conflicts in countries whose citizens would raise the ire of neo-Nazis simply on the basis of their culture and the color of their skin is just beyond the beyonds.

* * * *

Undertaking remarkably demanding counterinsurgency efforts, while under the persistent threat of violent death from faceless enemies that deliberately blend in with the local population is enough to send many soldiers over the edge and into the realm of committing atrocities against innocents - even when they had the best of intentions upon entering the maelstrom. But sending in soldiers with the most insidious forms of in-built prejudices and a priori hatred is just begging for atrocities against civilians.

Digby of Hullabaloo also aptly observes:

But regardless of the strain of racism that already exists in that warzone, putting white supremecists in their midst and allowing them to spew their Nazi propaganda among those frustrated, frightened, bored soldiers is a recipe for disaster. Instead of the sort of common tribal hatred you might see in any dangerous warlike environment, you suddenly have someone providing a whole philosophy and intellectual structure for it. It's the perfect recruiting ground for white supremecy and gives certain types permission to act out their violent fantasies against those they already consider racially inferior. And they are also training them to think of it in ways that are very dangerous when they come back to the US.

What a policy in so many ways -- the U.S. Army says no to gays, but yes to KKK. I realize that this is the core of George Bush's base, but white supremacists in the Army -- in Iraq? Using a stint in the army as a training ground for the upcoming race war back here?

I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone that minorities are over-represented in the military, as troops are approximately 20% black & 8% Latino. See, Conflict with Iraq. And white supremacists are going to be able to live and work side-by-side with these groups in perfect harmony? They like brown shirts, not brown people. I can just envision the results of this "mixture," especially with both sides armed.

UPDATE: My Left Wing also has an excellent post on this issue, Neo-Nazis, Hate Groups Infiltrate U.S. Military.

(Picture via Orcinus).

Tags: News, War in Iraq, White Supremacists, Racism

God made Humans, not Americans

Bill Maher talks about why they (people around the world) hate US (U.S., that is), giving a few poignant examples.

Tags: Bill Maher, Political Humor, Video

Cartoon of the Day

* Jeff Danziger, NY Times

Tags: Political Cartoons

FiREWORKS

Enjoy the show . . .

Heed the Call

Between the 4th of July festivities -- the parades and the fireworks, the BBQs and the pool, is an article that should be required reading for all. Brent Budowsky has a column in the Editor & Publisher, A July 4th Call to Arms -- To Protect the 4th Estate, that personifies the day we are celebrating. This is a theme that I have returned to many times -- and is in fact the concept underlying my blog -- that we can't have justice or peace without truth. And a free press is vital to provide truth -- without which, we are not a democracy. This piece eloquently expresses these views, which are so important that it is difficult to merely excerpt portions. Budowsky reminds:

As America celebrates July 4, honoring Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine and Founding Fathers who committed treason against tyranny, and defeated an empire of Kings with the power of freedom and truth, we are reminded again of the preeminent importance of the First Amendment to a nation governed of the informed consent of a democratic people.

* * * *

Freedom of the press was created as a Fourth Estate, a primary check and balance to a free nation who's governance is carefully balanced between the executive, legislative and judicial branches, designed to limit each other's power to protect the common good of America.

When Thomas Paine wrote that the sun never shined on a cause as great as ours, that cause was not the monarchy of King George where those who knocked on doors at night could write their own search warrants. It is no coincidence that after freedom had triumphed in the new world, Paine and others took the cause to France and continental Europe, followed generations later by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the triumph of Paine's successors over not only the Soviet Politburo's crimes but their agents of lies from Pravda to Radio Moscow.

* * * *

We have a President who claims the inherent, presumptive power to abrogate provisions of the Constitution and throw aside the Bill of Rights, a monarchical power he literally asserts with a doctrine championed by our current Attorney General.

Those who do not agree, are charged with treason, and threatened with prison. We have a President who claims more than 700 times that he can break the very laws he signs, and those who challenge this are called traitors, and threatened with retribution. We have an attorney general who believes the Geneva Convention, championed by virtually all in the military who our president falsely claims he always heeds, is some quant relic of the past, and those who reveal the truth of abuses are called unpatriotic, enemies of the state, and threatened with investigation.

* * * *

It is time to man the barricades of democracy in defense of all three branches of government and the Fourth Estate, in the defense of the two hundred year old notion that we are indeed in this together, that we share a democracy of
fellow patriots where the voices that charge treason are not the voices of true Americanism, and that Thomas Paine's greatest sun that ever shined on earth is now ours to preserve, protect and defend in a nation of fellow patriots on a common mission, based on courageous search for truth defended by courageous heroism in war.

God Bless America. Happy 4th of July.

See also, Frank Rich's timely NYTimes column, Can't Win the War? Bomb the Press!

----
What is under attack, with the recent partisan charges of "treason" directed at the press, is not some abstract notion of "the public's right to know" but the core of the American system of government. It's time to "man the barricades of democracy."

Tags: Commentary, Civil Liberties, Fourth of July, Journalism

I Think it was the 4th of July

Chicago - Saturday in the Park.

Happy 4th.

Tags: Music Video

Cartoon of the Day

4th of July Edition

* Bob Englehart

Tags: Political Cartoons

I've Got A Secret

Extolling the value of open government, President Jimmy Carter wrote a July 4th op-ed in the Washington Post, We Need Fewer Secrets, on the 40th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act. As he notes:

Our government leaders have become increasingly obsessed with secrecy. Obstructionist policies and deficient practices have ensured that many important public documents and official actions remain hidden from our view.

The events in our nation today -- war, civil rights violations, spiraling energy costs, campaign finance and lobbyist scandals -- dictate the growing need and citizens' desire for access to public documents.

* * * *

Increasingly, developed and developing nations are recognizing that a free flow of information is fundamental for democracy.

* * * *

Nearly 70 countries have passed legislation to ensure the right to request and receive public documents, the vast majority in the past decade and many in middle- and low-income nations. While the United States retreats, the international trend toward transparency grows, with laws often more comprehensive and effective than our own.

* * * *

We cannot take freedom of information for granted. Our democracy depends on it.

At the same time that the Bush Administration believes that its citizenry must increasingly surrender its right to privacy to the government's "need to know" for our protection, the government has denied our right to know how the government is functioning, shielding from public view how it conducts itself on our behalf. This is not the definition of democracy.

I'm not sure that we should be celebrating when you compare our freedoms as they exist today, on our Day of Independence, the birth of our Nation and its democracy, and realize that those freedoms pale in comparison to those of formerly authoritarian regimes and developing countries. Perhaps protesting in the street would be more appropriate.

E.J. Dionne of the Post also writes about the 4th in A Dissident's Holiday, noting the "distinguished national tradition in which dissident voices identify with the revolutionary aspirations of the republic's founders." The founders would fully support the protest.

"Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. "
-words written on the Liberty Bell

(Picture -- Independence Hall, Philadelphia)

Tags: Commentary, Jimmy Carter, Fourth of July

Cartoon of the Day

* Larry Wright, The Detroit News

Tags: Political Cartoons

I Only Have Eyes For You

Still

Tags: Music Video

Oh Happy Day

35/18

Our Anniversaries
(Dating/Wedding)

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person,
having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words,
but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together,
certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping,
and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.

~Dinah Craik

Get the Message?

TalkLeft compares the disparate sentences of 2 Katrina related crimes in Katrina Looters Get 15 Year Sentences. The two sentences were doled out to three people who looted liquor from a grocery store and two debris removal contractors who bribed a federal official.

One crime received 15 years and the other 1 year. Care to guess which was which?

Right, 15 years to the liquor looters. The Judge wanted to send a message. I guess the message is when all hell breaks lose, a drink won't solve your problems.

I also wonder if the reason for the difference in the severity of the sentences can be seen as "white under the collar" crime vs. "black" crime, perchance?

Blogger Watertiger at Dependable Renegade put it a little more artfully, in Oh yeah. That's punishment:

I'm not even going to speculate on the skin color of the people involved. That would be irresponsible, no?

Tags: News, Law

Public Enemy

In Humor Hurts, I cited a research study about the voting habits of young Daily Show viewers. Of course, Jon Stewart would have to speak (in his own inimitable way) to the fact that he is "Public Enemy #1" (or is it 10, or 200)?



For the Joe Scarborough interview that Jon Stewart references, see Jon Stewart Enemy of Democracy? (via Throw away your TV).

Also, Melissa McNamara of Blogophile at CBS News, Bloggers Laugh Over Jon Stewart Study, has a survey of blogger reaction to the study, including moi.

Tags: Daily Show, Jon Stewart, Commentary, Political Satire, Video

Cartoon of the Day

* David Horsey, Seattle Intelligencer Times

Tags: Political Cartoons

Awkward Silence

After Friday Funnies (see Gone Fishing), comes Saturday Silliness. It's the 4th of July week-end, after all.

This Daily Show report on the Mexican Food Restaurant, Pink Taco, by Ed Helms is funny without any other background.

TV Squad provides the precis:

Many residents of Scottsdale were upset with the news of the restaurant opening a branch in their town, because the restaurant name is slang for part of a woman's anatomy. Helms didn't quite understand, asking, "Can you cannnrow it down for m a lttle bit?" After the woman he was interviewing stammered a bit, he asked, "Is it slang for 'awkward silence?'" He also interviewed the man in charge of Pink Taco, discussing how the name isn't at all vagina-related (the vagina-themed restaurant idea has already been trademarked by Vagina Joes).

For the real story, Boston Globe has a report on the controversy, Pink taco restaurant name causes stir. I probably shouldn't admit it, but I had never heard this particular slang for that particular part. Even so, I could see a fuss-up if it was "Pink Pussy," but Pink Taco just doesn't have the same vulgar cachet.

Blogger comment dit-on? has the best sum up in her post, tacos, anyone?:

Proof positive that Middle America is
a) too uptight
b) doesn't have enough real problems to worry about (Darfur, anyone?)

Oh, and that sex sells. Damn those evil marketers ...

Tags: Daily Show, Ed Helms, Pink Taco, Video