On Hiatus... Be good.

Chuck Schumer Says Listen to Tubing On Sundays With the Brain...

87.9fm Pirate Cat Radio

Sunday; 1-3pm (PST)

Iraqi Police Get A Pep Talk

Winning hearts and minds one at a time.

Bobby Jindal - Americans Can Do Anything

Obama gave a great speech. Jindall... not so much. Even Brooks and Halperin on Lehrer were brutal.

Coming after Obama's stunning speech it was just childish.

American's can do anything was the theme, despite the fact that Obama had just spent an hour detailing all the things millions of Americans can't do right now...

pay their mortgage.

find a job.

get health insurance.

pay for their children's education.


but in Jindall's words, Americans can do anything.

well i guess i'll just shit myself a gold brick and solve all my problems.

Nixon Goes to China, Et tu Allen?

The US government may have to nationalise some banks on a temporary basis to fix the financial system and restore the flow of credit, Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman has told the Financial Times.

In an interview with the FT Mr Greenspan, who for decades was regarded as the high priest of laisser-faire capitalism, said nationalisation could be the least bad option left for policymakers.

It may be necessary to temporarily nationalise some banks in order to facilitate a swift and orderly restructuring,” he said. “I understand that once in a hundred years this is what you do.”

Mr Greenspan’s comments capped a frenetic day in which policymakers across the political spectrum appeared to be moving towards accepting some form of bank nationalisation.

“We should be focusing on what works,” Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, told the FT. “We cannot keep pouring good money after bad.” He added, “If nationalisation is what works, then we should do it.”

Speaking to the FT ahead of his speech to the Economic Club of New York last night, Mr Greenspan said that “in some cases, the least bad solution is for the government to take temporary control” of troubled banks either through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or some other mechanism.

BUT, By all means, don't screw the investors who happened to have invested in this crapola...

The former Fed chairman said temporary government ownership would ”allow the government to transfer toxic assets to a bad bank without the problem of how to price them.”

But he cautioned that holders of senior debt - bonds that would be paid off before other claims - might have to be protected even in the event of nationalisation.

”You would have to be very careful about imposing any loss on senior creditors of any bank taken under government control because it could impact the senior debt of all other banks,” he said. “This is a credit crisis and it is essential to preserve an anchor for the financing of the system. That anchor is the senior debt.”

Inherit the Wind - More Spencer Tracy Friday

Judgment at Nuremberg - Well Worth Seeing

The trial conducted before this Tribunal began over eight months ago. The record of evidence is more than ten thousand pages long, and final arguments of counsel have been concluded.

Simple murders and atrocities do not constitute the gravamen of the charges in this indictment. Rather, the charge is that of conscious participation in a nationwide, government organized system of cruelty and injustice in violation of every moral and legal principle known to all civilized nations. The Tribunal has carefully studied the record and found therein abundant evidence to support beyond a reasonable doubt the charges against these defendants.

Heir Rolfe, in his very skillful defense, has asserted that there are others who must share the ultimate responsibility for what happened here in Germany. There is truth in this. The real complaining party at the bar in this courtroom is civilization. But the Tribunal does say that the men in the dock are responsible for their actions, men who sat in black robes in judgment on other men, men who took part in the enactment of laws and decrees, the purpose of which was the extermination of humans beings, men who in executive positions actively participated in the enforcement of these laws -- illegal even under German law. The principle of criminal law in every civilized society has this in common: Any person who sways another to commit murder, any person who furnishes the lethal weapon for the purpose of the crime, any person who is an accessory to the crime -- is guilty.

Heir Rolfe further asserts that the defendant, Janning, was an extraordinary jurist and acted in what he thought was the best interest of this country. There is truth in this also. Janning, to be sure, is a tragic figure. We believe he loathed the evil he did. But compassion for the present torture of his soul must not beget forgetfulness of the torture and the death of millions by the Government of which he was a part. Janning's record and his fate illuminate the most shattering truth that has emerged from this trial: If he and all of the other defendants had been degraded perverts, if all of the leaders of the Third Reich had been sadistic monsters and maniacs, then these events would have no more moral significance than an earthquake, or any other natural catastrophe. But this trial has shown that under a national crisis, ordinary -- even able and extraordinary -- men can delude themselves into the commission of crimes so vast and heinous that they beggar the imagination. No one who has sat at through trial can ever forget them: men sterilized because of political belief; a mockery made of friendship and faith; the murder of children. How easily it can happen.



There are those in our own country too who today speak of the "protection of country" -- of "survival." A decision must be made in the life of every nation at the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat. Then, it seems that the only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon what is expedient -- to look the other way.

Well, the answer to that is "survival as what?" A country isn't a rock. It's not an extension of one's self. It's what it stands for. It's what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult!

Before the people of the world, let it now be noted that here, in our decision, this is what we stand for: justice, truth, and the value of a single human being.

War Crimes Tribunals on Pay Per View

I realize that most pundits, professors and otherwise knowledgable people believe that Bush Administration officials will not be prosecuted. And, yet, how can they not be? The have admitted it! I believe Obama will move slowly, but, the case will build itself with an inexorable logic. The longer this goes on, the more irresistable will be the obligation to prosecute.

This need not be an expensive proposition for the American taxpayer. As with the inauguration, the Obama administration can sell the broadcast rights to HBO with the provision, of course, that it be freely available in real time, in order to fund the cost to the government. Perhaps pay per view for a live feed, with copies made available later and clips allowed. Press, photographers and observers would be allowed attendance, but we could sell HBO the exclusive re-broadcast rights in some negotiated fashion that didn't completely forestall a public record of it. Limited copyright or some such.

Anyway, think of the lesson to future generations if the american public were to consume an american nuremberg trial a la oj simpson. talk about must see tv. it'd be a talking heads all you can eat buffet of sound bites and analysis.

the obama administration can walk and chew gum at the same time. it is important that this criminal chapter be exposed, prosecuted and reflected upon. while currently there seems to be little apptetite for prosecutions, there is even less appetite for sweeping the matter under the rug. eventually, we will develop an appetite for prosecution and come up with a plan to pay for it.

It's Been A Slow Train Coming...

President Obama is making all the right moves. Ah Loves This.

Holder is gonna prosecute.

WAR CRIMES ARE ON THE TABLE.

Climate change is on the table.

SCIENCE is on the table.

Contraceptives may be off the table which is unfortunate.

Justice.

Common Sense.

No more date rape bi-partisanship.

Sunshine in public records.

A belief in the fact that government should ACTUALLY work.

GOD-DAMN.

optimism is the word of the day.

Bush Spied on Journalists and News Organizations

There it is. Live on TV. First hand, eye witness testimony about another Bush lie concerning yet more illegal acts committed by his criminal administration.

Fire up the subpoena's.

Israel IDF Officers Warned Against Travel to Europe

IDF officers intending to travel to Europe, whether for business or pleasure, have been advised to contact the Judge Advocate General's Office prior to leaving Israel; and some may be instructed not to leave the country.

The advisory has been issued following Israel's concern that international arrest warrants may be issued against officers who were involved in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, on charges of war crimes.

Jerusalem has reportedly received several reports suggesting international human rights groups are in the process of gathering evidence in the form of photos and testimonials, with the intent of filing suits both with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague and in local European courts.

"As far as the international arena is concerned, Israel is entering what is probably its darkest era," a Jerusalem source told Yedioth Ahronoth. "The Palestinian and their friends will try to make Israel look like a leper, like China looked after the Tiananmen Square massacre (of 1989), or like Serbia did under (former President Slobodan) Milosevic.

"They intend of mounting a legal front against IDF officers, ministers, Knesset members and Israeli diplomats. They will go after them with arrest warrants all over the world."

According to political sources, the situation may take another turn for the worst after the foreign media will be allowed back into Gaza Strip, and the devastation in Gaza becomes more evident.

The Israelis claim that Hamas has been using women and children as human shields never really took, said a source. Whenever it was used the response was the same: If you know that there a women and children there – hold your fire.

Tova Tzimuki Published: 01.19.09, 18:05 / Israel News

Mark Twain on Lincoln, or is it Obama....

It was no accident that planted Lincoln on a Kentucky farm, half way between the lakes and the Gulf. The association there had substance in it. Lincoln belonged just where he was put. If the Union was to be saved, it had to be a man of such an origin that should save it. No wintry New England Brahmin could have done it, or any torrid cotton planter, regarding the distant Yankee as a species of obnoxious foreigner. It needed a man of the border, where civil war meant the grapple of brother and brother and disunion a raw and gaping wound. It needed one who knew slavery not from books only, but as a living thing, knew the good that was mixed with its evil, and knew the evil not merely as it affected the negroes, but in its hardly less baneful influence upon the poor whites.

It needed one who knew how human all the parties to the quarrel were, how much alike they were at bottom, who saw them all reflected in himself, and felt their dissensions like the tearing apart of his own soul. When the war came Georgia sent an army in gray and Massachusetts an army in blue, but Kentucky raised armies for both sides. And this man, sprung from Southern poor whites, born on a Kentucky farm and transplanted to an Illinois village, this man, in whose heart knowledge and charity had left no room for malice, was marked by Providence as the one to "bind up the Nation's wounds."

- quoted in New York Times, January 13, 1907

Hercules and the Augean Stables

This is a retelling of the fifth of twelve labors the Greek hero Hercules performed for Eurystheus.

Hercules was next instructed to perform a smelly service that would benefit mankind in general, but especially King Augeas of Elis, son of Poseidon.

King Augeas was cheap, and while he was rich enough to own many, many herds of cattle, he had never been willing to pay for the services of someone to clean their mess. The mess has become proverbial. Augean stables is now synonymous with "Herculean task," which is itself the equivalent of saying something is all but humanly impossible.

As we've seen, Hercules enjoyed the finer, costly things in life, including a large meat meal like the one the unfortunate Pholus provided him. Seeing all the cattle Augeas wasn't taking care of, Hercules got greedy. He asked the king to pay him a tenth of his herd if he could clean the stables in one day.

The king didn't believe it was possible, and so agreed to Hercules' demands, but when Hercules diverted the neighboring river and used its force to cleanse the stables, King Augeas reneged on his deal. (He would eventually rue the day he thwarted Hercules as Hercules would later overthrow his kingdom and install his son.) In his defense, Augeas had an excuse. Between the time he made the bargain and the time Hercules delivered the goods, Augeas had learned that Hercules had been ordered to perform the labor by King Eurystheus, and that Hercules wasn't really offering the services of a man free to make such bargains -- or at least that is how he justified keeping his cattle.

When Eurystheus learned that Hercules had offered to work for King Augeas for pay, he denied the labor as one of the ten.

United Nations to Obama - Prosecute War Crimes Now

Some Straight Talk from Scott Horton at No Comment. This news is indicative of what civilised nations expect us to do in light of our legal obligations. I hope and fully expect our Congress and President Obama to investigate and then fulfill our obligations under the law.

In an interview on Tuesday evening with the German television program “Frontal21,” on channel ZDF Professor Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Rapporteur responsible for torture, stated that with George W. Bush’s head of state immunity now terminated, the new government of Barack Obama was obligated by international law to commence a criminal investigation into Bush’s torture practices.

“The evidence is sitting on the table,” he stated. “There is no avoiding the fact that this was torture.” He pointed to the U.S. undertakings under the Convention Against Torture in which the country committed that it would criminally prosecute anyone who tortured, or extradite the person to a state that would prosecute him. “The government of the United States is required to take all necessary steps to bring George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld before a court,” Nowak said.

Manfred Nowak, an internationally renowned law professor at the University of Vienna, currently serves as an independent expert for the United Nations looking at allegations of torture affecting member states. In 2006, he undertook a special investigation of conditions at the U.S. detention facilities at Guantánamo in which he concluded that practices approved by the Bush Administration violated human rights norms, including the prohibition against torture.

On the Closing of the Order of the Shrill or the Passing of Bush Derangement Syndrome

Bush being booed at Obama's inauguration courtesy of YouTube! *

And, of course, there's this gem,

The crowd cheered when Colin Powell appeared on the Jumbotron, and a loud boo erupted through parts of the National Mall when Joe Lieberman was shown entering the Inaugural platform.

And Politico's Andie Coller reports that the crowd booed Clarence Thomas when he was shown on the big screen.

In all fairness, the man deserves boos and worse for the conduct of his criminal administration, but, I find myself feeling much as I did about the protests over Rick Warren's inclusion in the ceremony. That it is time to restore some civility and some dialogue to our nations discourse and, finally, restore rational thought as our guiding principle. In order for this to happen, we must be willing to speak with the Rick Warren's of the world, or anyone in fact, who is truly interested in dialogue and with whom we can find common ground. While Bush's administration needs to be investigated and, most likely prosecuted, yesterday's demonstration seemed rude. As a nation, we are better than that or so I'd like to believe. I am comforted by the fact that the booes were not overwhelming or particularly venomous, more a reflexive reaction of disgust to the mere sight of the worst president in our nation's history.

Another encouraging sign is the positivity on the part of most of the blogosphere and blogopundits. Aside from the very few influential right wing sites, the internet coverage has been for the most part approving of Obama's conduct so far. I am confident that as we move forward and make the hard decisions of which Obama so pointedly reminded us, that Brad Delong can disband his Order of the Shrill and that Bush Derangement Syndrome will go the way of polio and small pox, virtually stamped out except for infrequent outbreaks occasioned by particular spasms of disgust as the sordid tale that was his presidency finally unravels.

I think it does not go too far to compare Obama's administration to the arrival of the Enlightenment after a long Dark Ages. Reason replaces religion. Hope replaces fear and prosperity conquers poverty.

I sure hope so.

* Update: Apparently, not only was the crowd booing, but one rather large section was singing Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye. So rude, but so funny.