Ice Station Tango

John Boehner is On to Our Socialist Plot

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:28:11 PST

Boehner's response to the passage of health care reform in the House:

I came here to renew the American Dream, so my kids and their kids have the same opportunities I had. I came here to fight big-government monstrosities like this bill that dim the light of freedom and diminish opportunity for future generations.

We would have gotten away with it if it weren't for that meddling emo House Minority Leader and his pesky "light of freedom" card.

Health Insurance Reform Passes House

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:16:24 PST

So health insurance reform passed the House of Representatives. That's fantastic. I'm on the whole let's just get something while we still can bandwagon. I wasn't always, but having watched the opportunity to do this thing right fall apart in the most tragic-comic way possible, I have shifted gears. I also enjoyed some of the details, b-narratives to the historic vote wrangling, like Sarah Palin's helpful role in getting one of the decisive votes into the House, Republican Joseph Cao's defiant vote for reform and Dennis Kucinich's equally defiant--borderline crazy--vote against what he considered to be a tragically flawed bill.

Obama is Stone Cold Ruthless

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:05:11 PST

What did the president do when he needed Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai to agree to a runoff in the country's tainted elections? He sent Kerry. And Kerry talked. Endlessly. A senior American official told the AP that talks went deep into the night on several occasions. Let it be known, world leaders, do not fuck with Obama. Next time he's sending Tim McCarver.

Church/State, Politics and Money

noreply@blogger.com (Russ Weiss) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:48:12 PST

On Tuesday, voters in Maine were asked to allow a law supporting same-sex marriage to stand. The law was passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor. Marriages were to begin 9/14/2009 but delayed pending Tuesday's vote.

Four states have been progressive enough to pass similar laws with New Hampshire starting Jan. 1, 2010. Three states plus Washington, D.C. recognize the marriages from other states but do not allow licenses to be issued in their state. Several European countries (including Spain which is about 94% Catholic) and South Africa allow gay marriage.

Since September, however, the forces of the Church and Focus on the Family vowed to defeat the law. Focus on the Family, based in Colorado Springs, donated $115,266 in Maine and $91,000 to fight a law in Washington state. Tom Minnery, senior vice president of Focus Action, the group's political arm, said it would have donated more were it not for Washington's campaign finance limits.

Then we have the Catholic Church; an entity whose worth is incalculable. The Boston Diocese alone is estimated to be worth $500 million. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine shows expenditures of $511,934.05 to StandForMarriageMaine.com since June 9th, 2009. A chart of the contributions to the Diocese of Portland dating from July 16th, 2009 shows $553,608.27. Much of the "contributions" were out-of-state. In other words, money for meddling in Maine's fight for equality. These monies went to print and TV attack ads featuring frightened children and misinformation.

I've always supported the concept of separation of Church and State. Opponents always say "But it's not in the Constitution!" meaning those particular words are not there. I agree, they aren't. But the 1st Amendment contains what is known as the Establishment Clause. It prohibits a) forming a National Religion by Congress or b) showing a preference of one religion over another. These are commonly referred to as "separationist" and "accommodationist". But, the naysayers respond, "No, that's an interpretation!".

Not being a Constitutional lawyer (although I agree with the majority of them), I tell the "bad guys" that the Supreme Court was established in 1789 as the highest Federal Court in the country. It has the final say on legal matters with their powers of judicial review, an inarguable fact. Then I talk to them about the decision in Everson v. Board of Education.

Justice Black writing for the majority said "the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect "a wall of separation between church and State" and "The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach."

It's unlawful for a religious entity to endorse a specific candidate. It's time for a law or Constitutional Amendment to finally put to rest the issue of separation. No organized religion, fellowship, union, society or coalition should be allowed to donate money advocating any side of a local, state or federal proposition before the voters. We can allow individual donations but only with the strictest of limits and maximum of punishments.

Extreme? Perhaps. But I fought hard against a defense of marriage act in Missouri several years ago and for a bond issue to expand my high school alma mater. Both of these were issues were valued to me, but both lost. Imagine that one day, you are confronted with outside groups attempting to overturn a law or defeat a ballot proposition. They might be the NRA, Focus on the Family, a church or even the TEA Partiers. They'll flood the area with money, bus in out-of-state people and disrupt town halls and meetings. When you're faced with defeat, you might wish something had been done earlier.

Whoever first said "all elections are local" was wrong. Dead wrong.

He Won't Do It Again

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:43:20 PST

I know I regret all the supermassive financial leviathans I created that ruined the entire global economy.

From Bloomberg:

Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- John S. Reed, who helped engineer the merger that createdCitigroup Inc., apologized for his role in building a company that has taken $45 billion in direct U.S. aid and said banks that big should be divided into separate parts.

“I’m sorry,” Reed, 70, said in an interview yesterday. “These are people I love and care about. You could imagine emotionally it’s not easy to see what’s happened.”

Well, that oughta just about wrap up that debate.

Musto's Tragically Unfunny Bit Hurts MSNBC, Helps Sarah Palin

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:53:00 PST

Ever since MSNBC's evening line up became a response to Fox News's conservative bias, they have situated their credibility precariously on a thin line of distinction--they consider themselves different from Fox because they stipulate that they are covering politics, not doing news.

That's a fair point. But that shield against criticism disappears when they make a mockery out of a legitimate news story by being mean spirited and, far worse, unfunny. This "sketch" done by Countdown regular Michael Musto on Lawrence O'Donnell's watch, he was sitting in for Keith Olbermann, is so tone deaf and shrill that it obscures the point of the story and likely illicited sympathy for Sarah Palin among those who don't know politics as well as they know that this shit is not funny.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

A commenter on Newsbusters' inevitable post about this sketch writes, "They can't use facts, just personal attacks and debasement." Sadly, that is exactly the impression this crap gives, which is extremely counterproductive because there are plenty of facts to use against Palin. Musto's unfunniness operates as such a distraction that it's hard to even follow what MSNBC is reporting--that Palin had a terribly unbecoming concession speech that she was desperate to give for self-serving reasons. The additional context that Vice Presidential candidates on the losing tickets do not give speeches on election night and that the McCain camp reportedly cut the lights to make sure Palin wouldn't give her awful speech is swallowed up by the image of Musto desperately trying to milk humor from a stone.

Italy Convicts Kidnappers

unruly1@sympatico.ca (SadButTrue) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:34:43 PST

Court Sentences 22 CIA Agents, 1 USAF Colonel

From The BBC:

An Italian judge has convicted 23 Americans - all but one of them CIA agents - and two Italian secret agents for the 2003 kidnap of a Muslim cleric.

The agents were accused of abducting Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, known as Abu Omar, from Milan and sending him to Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured.

The trial, which began in June 2007, is the first involving the CIA's so-called "extraordinary rendition" programme.

The Obama administration has expressed its disappointment at the convictions. "We are disappointed by the verdicts," state department spokesman Ian Kelly said in Washington. He declined to comment further pending a written opinion from the judge, but said an appeal was likely.

Three Americans and five Italians were acquitted by the court in Milan.
[...]
The CIA's Milan station chief at the time, Robert Lady, was given an eight-year term, while the other 22 Americans convicted - one of them a US air force colonel - were sentenced to five years in prison.

A little more information that the BBC omits is available from this article at Al-Jazeera. For one thing the three Americans who were acquitted actually got a pass for having diplomatic immunity. For another the five Italians were acquitted because they were "protected by State Secrecy rules." Which leads one to wonder why the 2 convicted Italian agents were not covered by that umbrella. Hmmm...

The US State Department may be disappointed by the verdict, but I'm quite frankly delighted. And I'll tell you why. For more than three years now, over several posts, I've been saying that the weasel-word 'rendition' really means kidnapping, and should not be given any distinction any higher than that of an extreme criminal act. It's nice that a judge and jury agree. And as to the disappointment expressed by the US government, I already covered that in that post from Sept. 19, 2006.

In America we see a government that continues to deny their own criminal activity. Then when it becomes undeniable, they deny that there is anything illegal about it. Then, when THAT becomes undeniable, they try to retroactively make legal the most egregiously despicable actions. Sickening. As Glenn Greenwald asks, "How can you be an American citizen and not be completely outraged, embarrassed, and disgusted by this conduct?"

What they're disappointed with, frankly, is that their depraved indifference to the rule of law cannot be forcibly extended to other jurisdictions.

In an e-mail about this story Len Hart expressed the fervent hope, "Perhaps the CIA will --at last --be held accountable for its TERRORIST activities." I wouldn't advise him to hold his breath. Not with the kind of MSM reporting on the story that is exemplified by this exchange on CNN's The Situation Room.

Sorry, I have no transcript so this is paraphrased from memory (I wrote this in comments of the last post just minutes after hearing it however. It's pretty accurate as to the intent of what was said.) Wolf Blitzer is interviewing Jeffery Toobin, whose legal expertise puts him in a class with John Yoo, Jay Bybee, and Orly Taitz.

Toobin: "the bad thing about this is that because of Interpol the [convicted criminals] have to avoid travel not only in Italy but most of the rest of Europe as well.

Blitzer: It's part of the job description of the CIA that they go into other countries, and break the law. They break and enter. They engage in bribery, and so forth. Italy is an ally. They're supposed to have an agreement with the US about things like this. The system failed somehow."

The only agreement that any foreign country might have with the US (at least so far as international law is concerned) about spies is this -- if a spy has an official embassy cover, when caught spying they are not charged, but simply declared Persona Non Grata and expelled from the country. As noted above this is what happened to the three CIA criminals who had diplomatic immunity. The others had to have been what is known as NOC's (meaning non-official cover,) and should have known that they were vulnerable to charges if they broke Italian law.

Any argument to the contrary can be boiled down to two words; American Exceptionalism. Which, you may be surprised to find out (assuming you're an American) has no foundation whatsoever in international law. None. And 'legal expert' Toobin had to have known that. So he's either an incredibly incompetent attorney or he's a liar. Or both.

There are other elements to this story that I'll just touch on here. First, what an incredibly ill-conceived and counter-productive operation this was. Kidnapping and torturing a Muslim cleric?! What the FUCK were they thinking?

The thought that comes to my mind is that infamous 9/12/01 quote from the Shrub, "If you're not with us you're with the terrorists." This adds the qualifier, "and if you're not with the terrorists YET, just wait til you see what we're planning."

Second, while I generally agree with the outcome of the case I'm a bit disconcerted about the relative weight of sentencing. It was my understanding that this kidnapping was carried out over the strenuous objections of Robert Seldon Lady, the Milan CIA station chief -- who rightly "saw it as ill-conceived and counter-productive." He was over-ruled by some political authority that one must assume extended right up to the White House, probably the OVP. Why then should he have gotten eight years when the doofuses who actually committed the crime got five? For that matter, if you're trying leaders in absentia anyway, why were Bush the Lesser and Shooter Dick not charged? This was nicely covered at Crooks and Liars last April.

It’s not easy for me to generate a lot of sympathy for a CIA man involved in a kidnapping, but I feel sorry for Bob Lady.
[...]
He and his wife loved Italy so much they bought a house in the foothills of the Alps and retired there in 2004. Months later an urgent call came, warning Lady to get out of Dodge — don’t even pack. The cops were on their way.

Tipped off, the Ladys successfully fled the country. But they left behind a bonanza of evidence in their dream home, not the least of which was a CIA surveillance photo of the kidnap victim, Osama Mustafa Hasan Nasr, known as Abu Omar...
The little guy stuck carrying out the operation (that he objected to) had to flee his home to avoid imprisonment, not to mention lost his wife, and all their property in Italy may go to Omar as restitution for his rendition...And the CIA abandoned Lady, disowning him as an employee and refusing to assist him in any way.

So, as with Abu Ghraib, the accountability begins and ends with the least powerful and never makes it up to the top decision makers.

As with everything the administration of Bush the Lesser touched, in this case loyalty only ever worked in one direction. Some days it just sucks to be Mr. Phelps.

"Good morning, Mr. Phelps. We have a mission for you.
...
...
As always, if you're caught or killed the secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ADDENDUM:
With any post that involves torture one feels compelled to remind readers that it is not only despicably inhuman, but is totally ineffective as an intelligence tool. Here's a quote on point from Nineteen Eighty-Four:

He became simply a mouth that uttered, a hand that signed, whatever was demanded of him. His sole concern was to find out what they wanted him to confess, and then confess it quickly, before the bullying started anew. He confessed to the assassination of eminent Party members, the distribution of seditious pamphlets, embezzlement of public funds, sale of military secrets, sabotage of every kind. He confessed that he had been a spy in the pay of the Eastasian government as far back as 1968. He confessed that he was a religious believer, an admirer of capitalism, and a sexual pervert. He confessed that he had murdered his wife, although he knew, and his questioners must have known, that his wife was still alive...It was easier to confess everything and implicate everybody.

NY-23, Flat Tires, Teabaggers and Redefining Victory

noreply@blogger.com (Russ Weiss) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:25:27 PST

It's over for the Teabaggers in NY-23. Despite a deer-in-the-lights interview with Glenn Beck and glowing endorsements from Hannity, Palin, Pawlenty and Rush, Republican candidate and Tea Party favorite Doug Hoffman (who did not reside in NY-23 but was willing to move in district if he won) lost a Republican seat held by that party for 120 years.

So, who's to blame? Hoffman, naturally, blames ACORN and Dems of "stealing the election"! The campaign also accused Dems of slashing a volunteer's tires. However, the Wall Street Journal followed up with the Plattsburgh police and was told that the volunteer actually damaged his tire on a broken bottle. Campaign manager Dan Tripp had no comment.

Okay, so it was a broken bottle but it was probably thrown on the ground by a liberal. So what does a Teabagger have to say about ACORN?

Digby writes:

John Fund and Rush Limbaugh have been darkly predicting an outbreak of voter fraud by the ACORN conspiracy that is threatening to take over the world. Indeed, the rank and file is worried that ACORN has even infiltrated the campaign of the teabagging darling Doug Hoffman.

Dave Weigel reports from NY 23:
Outside, two dozen Hoffman supporters lined the sidewalks with signs that attacked Owens as a “Pelosi puppet” and an agent of ACORN.

“I was at a Tea Party, but this is too slow a process for me,” said John Dewitt, a contractor from Adams, N.Y. “I’m more on the violence side. I’m more of the Civil War, revolutionary kind of guy. I’m of the old school–you kick them in the ass and be done with it.”

The Hoffman backers outside of the Biden event all said they’d attended Tea Parties. Some were affiliated with Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Project. All worried that ACORN was going to show up in the district, or even at the Biden event–a paranoia that led to some minor awkwardness when an African-American Hoffman worker walked by.

“This guy’s with ACORN,” said Dewitt.
“Definitely, not from around here,” said businessman Erik Dunk.

Those ACORNs are a bunch of shiftless welfare queens who are disenfranchising Real Americans.

That or they're working for your candidate's staff. Or you're a racist.

Now we have my favorite excuse - moving the goal posts and redefining the "victory". Local St. Louis Tea Party co-organizer Dana Loesch claims to be neither Democrat or Republican, just a conservative. However, her aim is to co-opt the GOP. She writes today:

"I’ve been going whole hog since February with my co-extremist, Bill Hennessy , since February. We didn’t do this to create some peashooter third party. We did it to help take over the GOP, to move this brick house back to its foundation. I am vehemently opposed to this movement being cop-opted into a third party and marginalized in the same manner that third parties are usually marginalized.

The GOP is a conservative party and that’s what this fight is to me, just as much as it’s about opposing the big government schemes oozing out of Washington.

We won in NY23. This blog served it’s purpose. Dede Scozzafava was dumped. She was dumped by the demographic to which she fronted, and when no one brought her Victorian freak show, she removed the mask and revealed herself, lest any doubters remained. We won when we forced the GOP to concede support. We won when we showed them that good political sense and sharp strategy is an instinct, not exclusive to the beltway elite. We won because we wrenched the reigns from their hands.

We the tea party have been leading since February. In order to survive, the GOP must finally cash the promise its collective mouth has been writing about “we the people” and all that jazz: it must relent and let the people lead. Asking politely is a formality: NY23 has shown that we have the power to take it when we want."

Get it? Hoffman, the Tea Party favorite lost the election, but THEY WON! "How?" you ask?

Well, they got rid of the NY Republican backed candidate Dede Scozzafava who left the race just days before the election. See, Dede was "a liberal" and "an ACORN-backed candidate, supported by the Working Families Party", not a true conservative Republican.

Even with "thousands of Tea Partiers from states as far away as California will have had an impact on what might otherwise have been an unnoticed special election. Local Tea Party Organizers across the country are overwhelmed by their people’s desire to help. Hoffman’s offices are overwhelmed with volunteers who are just showing up."

So what are the Teabaggers going to say when NY-23's new Rep is sworn into office and has a (D) behind his name? Maybe Al Franken's lawyers will have a new client.

Viagra Won't Fix That

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:30:44 PST

Jon Stewart asks, "Is our Dick going soft?" after it is revealed that former Vice President Cheney equivocated 72 times in a 2004 interview with the FBI about the outing of Valerie Plame. The clip ends with a horrifying twist.

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Can't Someone Fun Buy NBC?

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:11:46 PST

My thoughts on GE potentially selling NBC Universal to Comcast are posted over at The Daily Dose.

Two Commercials That Need to Die

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:26:39 PST

Seems like there's always one or two commercials that just will not stop playing no matter how bad they are, and I don't watch a lot of TV!

First up--the fucking juice drinks and soda lady who's scared shitless of the possibility that the government might raise taxes on juice drinks and soda. Not juice, mind you, juice drinks.

The second one is the Direct TV ad with Dave Spade and Chris Farley. Seriously, Spade, you used to shit down the necks of celebrities that took tone deaf jobs like this. He not only did this horrible bit, he defended the decision by claiming Farley would have liked it and that the Direct TV spots are cool. Is a check getting that hard to come by? Go back on tour, dude. You were funny once. This is an abomination:

The Public Option is More Popular Than Sex and Ice Cream Combined

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:11:49 PST

Tommy has the latest robust polling numbers in favor of the public option. Of course, like all wildly popular things, it just may cost you your life. At least that's what Mitch McConnell be saying.

Vicious Spin Cycle

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:29:00 PST

Jon Stewart breaks down how Fox recycles it's material from opinion into news and back again.

I Don't Recall

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:32:35 PDT

The summary of Dick Cheney's 2004 interview with the FBI about the outing of Valerie Plame reveals the former VP never heard anything about that. If he does know anything about that, he sure doesn't remember what that could be.

Rep. Grayson, Fire At Will

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:26:26 PDT

In the following clip from The Young Turks, Democratic U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson from Florida talks to Cenk Uygur about his fiery rhetoric.

I wish I could say that the only people that seem to be put off by Grayson's rhetoric are Republicans and the media. Fellow Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, who usually knows his shit, said of Grayson, "Is this news to you that this guy's one fry short of a Happy Meal?"

UPDATE: Weiner apologized to Grayson for saying that. That's right, Grayson's got Democrats apologizing to him.

Even those in the media who didn't think Grayson's initial salvos at the Republicans were worthy of outrage, opined that Grayson went too far when he called former Enron lobbyist and Bernanke advisor Linda Robertson a "K Street whore." Excuse me, but the phrase "K-street whore" is about fifteen minutes from getting into the Oxford dictionary. This is not an offense against gender. If he called a man a "K-street whore" no one would have even blogged about it. And people blog about ANYTHING.

Grayson's bomb throwing s not the equivalent of Republican bomb throwing. It is a response to it. They set the rules. Grayson is just the politician who finally decided to kick their ass at their own game that actually had the ability to do it. As Grayson said in The Young Turks clip, when it comes to the issues that we're currently "debating" there is a right and a wrong answer.

Not only is he fighting fire with fire, but he's doing it where the GOP bomb-throwers--like Republican Rep. Paul Broun, who, in this clip, claims, on the floor of the House, that the public option will kill people--have done the most damage.

Grayson's strategy is to change the tone of the entire debate, which, when it comes to the mess that is the American health care system, never should have gotten away from the Democrats in the first place. Grayson has the Republicans on the defensive, which puts a lot of strain on the flimsy house of lies they've built over the course of this endless debate.

Dave Anthony at the blog Stop All Monsters writes:

The GOP attempted to fight back but they had built their entire health care argument on lies and nonsense. Greyson was cutting through to the meat of the matter: You don't care about people dying or you do. Republicans had no answer because their argument wasn't about people dying, it was about money and big government. The entire debate shifted. Win for Greyson.

So, when Grayson comes along and hoists a lying jerk like Broun on whatever a petard is, it's not only deeply satisfying, it's actually helpful because all the false premises are actually rebutted on television.

The era of the soundbyte has been going on for sometime now, and only one side has been playing. Even elections, which gave Democrats a huge majority in both houses, couldn't generate real health reform. Even though health reform was one of the few defining issues of the endless presidential campaign, real reform died almost immediately in a barrage of untruthful sound bytes (and health industry campaign contributions). We can't do anything about the money in politics yet, but we can at least compete for sound bytes and headlines.

Don't look for Grayson to moderate anytime soon. Not only is he independently wealthy, he seems to think that the best way to get re-elected, even in his traditionally red district, is to get busy doing the people's work. He even has something of a public endorsement from President Obama, who called Florida Reps Grayson, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Kendrick Meek "outstanding members of Congress."

By the way something, Grayson, as one could guess, drives the red bloggers utterly mad.

Lieberman--Crazy Like a Crazy Person

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:59:37 PDT

Jon Stewart imagines the splendor that will be the Lieberman filibuster of the public option--reading the script of Benjamin Button.

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Cute. In reality, Lieberman doesn't have to lift a finger, because filibusters are automatic. The marathon filibuster style from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington doesn't happen anymore. Somewhere, Howard Dean--who debated Karl Rove on Tuesday at Penn State--is about to scream. "Chicken Sandwich, Karl!"

Nate Silver looks at Lieberman's threat and makes a good point, "[I]t's tough to bargain with people like Lieberman who are a little crazy. In certain ways, he resembles... one of those rogue, third-bit Middle Eastern dictators that he's so often carping about, capable of creating great anxiety with relatively little expenditure of resources, and taking equal pleasure in watching his friends and enemies sweat."

Good Lord, I Hate That Guy

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:46:35 PDT

The health care saga has suddenly become a microcosm of the history of the last decade of Democratic self-destruction--if Harry Reid doesn't fuck things up, Joe Lieberman will. In what would be the final death blow to any hopes Lieberman has of rejoining the Democratic party for real or of being re-elected to the Senate in 2012, Holy Joe says he would join a filibuster of any health reform bill that includes a public option.

I don't like to reduce this blog to simple ranting and cursing, so I'll just leave this post as it is. See you good folks later on.

Opt Out Version of Public Option In Final Senate Bill

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:18:27 PDT

Okay... I am amazed that Harry Reid managed to not deliver the worst possible scenario at a big moment in history. Nevertheless, putting an opt-out option into the Senate bill is still one massive concession. Don't get me wrong, the opt-out plan is infinitely better than getting nothing, yet again, after nearly an entire year of work. The people in states with governors and state legislators that are so completely controlled by anti-reform interests are going to be second class citizens. They may be a bit lonely too, because a lot of people will be moving the moment their governor signs the bill that opts his state out of the public option.

Portugal's Mellow Approach to War on Drugs Shows Promise

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:52:18 PDT

In 2001, Portugal ended all criminal penalties drug possession for personal use. Time's Maia Szalavitz looks at the results.

She writes:

Compared to the European Union and the U.S., Portugal's drug use numbers are impressive. Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%. The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%. Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used marijuana.

Portugal's plan works because money saved on enforcement was spent on treatment instead. People found guilty of possession go before a panel, not to be confused with a death panel, made up of a psychologist, a social worker and a legal adviser, who recommend an appropriate treatment, which is never jail or prison. Also, if the drug user doesn't want treatment, they are free to opt out with no penalty.

Professor Critical of Oil Industry Loses Grant, Office

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:08:12 PDT

University of Alaska professor Rick Steiner talked to Democracy Now about the possible corellation between his criticism of the oil industry and his university pulling his $10,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the massive power and influence the oil industry has over everything in Alaska, including the universities. Then again, what's a professor doing thinking independently anyway?

So You Mean They Don't Support Climate Change Legislation? Shocking

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:52:40 PDT

On Monday, infamous pranksters The Yes Men pulled a hoax of the non-boy-in-a-balloon variety. These guys took on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, staging a press conference where they claimed to represent the group. Their fake spokesman went on to announce the Chamber of Commerce's new found support for climate change legislation.

This went on until the real spokesman showed up, and he was pretty pissed. Watch:

The hoax was picked up by Reuters and rippled through the media all the way to the far edge, where Fox Business Network picked it up and promptly dropped it:

In fairness, FBN weren't the only ones to bite on the delightful scam.

Calling Out GOP Hypocrisy.

unruly1@sympatico.ca (SadButTrue) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:03:09 PDT

Franken Schools The Rest of the Democratic Senate Caucus

I blogged at Les Enragés last week about what a good idea I thought the Franken Amendment was. Attached to the defense budget, it will prohibit the Department of Defense from doing business with firms like KBR*, who append riders to their employees' contracts basically requiring them to sign all legal disputes with the company into the hands of the company's own arbitrators. Quite a sweetheart deal for the company, but not so much for employees like Jamie Leigh Jones, as I fumed over back in December of 2007 here and here. The Agent's posts on the same story are here and here. All of those posts to some degree point out how the Bush administration deliberately created a zone of lawlessness in Iraq, with the country being beyond the ordinary legal jurisdiction of the USA, and the contractors therein also being outside the special military jurisdiction of the Uniform Code of Military Justice that governs the armed forces wherever in the world they may be.

*-(a division of the former Halliburton, which firm was once led by CEO Dick Cheney -- if you were somehow unaware of those facts)

Senator Franken (I love the sound of that, especially after the protracted wait imposed by sore loser Norm Coleman) was fully aware of the Jones case. Concern for her plight and fear that other women might fall into the same predicament directly precipitated his amendment. But he couldn't be unaware of the political implications either. In the post cited above I expressed the hope that the 30 Republican senators who voted against the Franken Amendment would pay dearly for it politically.

Well, just watch this clip from The Rachel Maddow Show.

"When Republicans are getting called out in
Mississippi, Kansas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Georgia
something big is going on politically."

That something big is that those 30 Republican Senators are indeed paying dearly for their knee-jerk votes against Franken's amendment. Uh, guys? Maybe in the future you might not vote against something for the simple fact that it comes from across the aisle. Think about it first. Exercise your judgment, if you actually have any.

Featured in the beginning of Rachel's article are senators Capo and Risch of Idaho; Cochran and Wicker of Mississippi; Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts of Kansas; Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee; Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia; and Diaper Dave Vitter of Louisiana. These are states that seem willing to forgive their politicians for everything from overt racism to the most bizarre sexual scandals, so long as they bring home the porkbarrel federal dollars. But enabling gangs of rapists?!? Sorry, that seems to be far beyond the pale. The opinion pages in their home states describe their votes as 'disappointing,' 'embarrassing,' and 'inexplicable.' I would have much stronger words for it, but they couldn't be printed in any family newspapers.

When the Jamie Leigh Jones story first came to my attention two years ago I was SURE it was going to finally set a fire under an American electorate that had endured some of the most egregious malfeasance ever to take place in the country's history. Keep in mind that it had already been over two years since the actual rape, which took place in 2005. Still, questions remain that dwarf in significance even the primary question of whether Ms. Jones will ever get even a fraction of the justice she is due.

Firstly, why, oh why, oh why the hell did this have to wait until Sen. Franken brought it to the floor? Where were the other 56 Democratic senators (since the 2008 elections, 50 before that) on this issue? This was especially significant before the election, when an issue like this could well have elected even more Democrats, had it only been nudged into the spotlight during a tight campaign. Which, BTW, would have been a handy way to bring attention to the wider issue of contractor fraud and deception in Iraq, billions of dollars in cash just disappearing, etc., etc. -- all of which would have been a huge embarrassment to the Republicans, with their non-competitive no-bid, cost-plus crony-enriching practices. For the Democrats this was pure political gold, and not of the type they would have had to moil in the mines for. No, this was like freshly-minted sparkling coins scattered on the ground at their feet, and they couldn't bother to stoop to pick it up? Inexplicable.

Secondly, and this is a question that is going to come into the minds of every American who has just heard about this four-year-old story in the last few days, or will in the next couple of weeks -- where was the supposedly liberal-biased media on this story? The answer is obvious -- they were sitting on it to protect their Republican and conservative buddies. By now everybody whose IQ rises above that of a lump of mud should already have dispelled the liberal-biased-media myth. Now even those whose intellect is equal to a scoop of swamp water will know too.

And the third question is one that's been asked from the beginning. Why the heck hasn't Attorney General Michael Mukasey taken any action against KBR on this, or on any other Bush era lawbreaking for that matter? Is he to be considered as merely spineless, ineffective and incompetent, or should he by now be regarded as an unindicted co-conspirator?

Good job, Senator Franken. Mission Accomplished on several levels here. First, this is good lawmaking in its own right. Second, you've exposed the hypocrisy of several of the worst lizards in the US Senate. And third, you've blown the cover off of the Corporate Lamestream Media. Kudos to you. And to the rest of the Democratic Senate Caucus - shame on you for not having done this years ago.

UPDATE: Somebody has done a very good thing, starting a website called Republicans For Rape, specifically to target this issue. Check out the page listing those senators who voted against the Franken Amendment - complete with pictures of each. Nothing like a proper rogues' gallery, I always say.

You Can Do It!

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:11:04 PDT

George W. Bush and wife Laura are going to be motivational speakers! Rachel Maddow explains.

Robust Public Option Would Reduce Deficit

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:32:54 PDT

It's good to see the Public Option is gaining momentum. The fact that it reduces the deficit along with positive polling should make this a no-brainer politically. Make it robust, ladies and gentlemen in Congress. Make it robust.

By the way something, Heather Graham is a great pick to embody the public option. This ad should go national.

Don't Believe the Hype About 2010 Republican Resurgence

fuse1992@yahoo.com (The Station Agent) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:07:02 PDT

About once a week I see an editorial about how screwed the Democrats are going into the 2010 election. I understand why these pundits are saying this--it's because they just can't help getting shit wrong. I wouldn't be surprised if the Republicans don't make some modest gains, simply because so many distracts have gone Democratic, but the landslide they hoped they would get by denying President Obama even the slightest cooperation, will not happen.

Nate Silver looks at all the moving pieces here. Nate isolates the most important factor in determining the outcome of the 2010 election--enthusiasm. And while the teabagging phenomenon has been depicted in the media as a real movement, we will see that by election time the metrics that measure enthusiasm will be a lot closer than people think.

Greg Sargent writes:

If you look at the generic Congressional matchup in the internals of the new Washington Post poll, you’ll see that the Dem advantage over the GOP is virtually identical to what it was heading into the two previous Congressional elections.

Right now, the poll finds that when respondents are asked whether they will vote for a Dem or a GOPer in the 2010 elections, 51% pick the Dem and 39% pick the Republican.

In June of 2008 (the most recent historical data in the WaPo poll), Dems led the generic matchup 52%-37%. And in early November of 2006 the Dem lead was 51%-45%. Today the spread is largely unchanged.

As DemFromCT points out that in this poll, only 20 percent of adults identify themselves as Republicans, the lowest in this poll since 1983. They can be as enthusiastic as they want, they're only 20%. I would also like to point out that with the delayed effects of the stimulus kicking in more heavily in 2010 and with the looming passage of some semblence of health care reform, enthusiasm could be high on both sides.

Chris Kofinis spoke to Keith Olbermann about the ongoing poor performance of the GOP in poll after poll.