BOB KERREY has had enough.
Archive for 2009
April 11, 2009
FREE-RANGE PORK: Maybe better for the pigs, but not for you.
OBAMA’S SNEAKY ANTI-CASTRO POLICY: American tourists invade Cuba. Well, it’ll probably work out better than that whole Bay of Pigs thing. . . .
RECIPES FOR EFFECTIVE “TEA PARTY” PROTESTS. “As an inherently decentralized movement, there’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to hold a Tea Party protest. But there are a few tricks to maximize the effect of your message, organizers tell FOXNews.com.”
Plus, don’t be suckered by the Republican Party nabobs: “They inevitably will try to hijack the spotlight and use their permanent political apparatus to claim credit for the movement.”
THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR MCCAIN, BIG BUSINESS WOULD BE SQUASHING DISSENT. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Goldman Sachs hires law firm to shut blogger’s site. “Goldman Sachs is attempting to shut down a dissident blogger who is extremely critical of the investment bank, its board members and its practices.”
SQUARE AMERICA: Vintage snapshots and vernacular photography.
Check out the moving pictures gallery. Plus, space exploration on black-and-white TV. And, beauty and its discontents. And, not so square — but then, really “square America” never really was — The Party, where a good time was apparently had by all. (NSFW).
A RENEWED “ASSAULT WEAPON” BAN: Will They Or Won’t They?
RELEASED: The BioShock 2 gameplay video.
TRANSPARENCY: “The Rendell administration appears to be going out of its way to block public access to government documents. At least that is the impression left on the state’s new open-records czar. . . . According to her letter, the situation has gotten so bad that lawyers in Rendell’s office have put representatives of every state agency on notice not to even take her calls. Everything has to be in writing, the lawyers insist.” (Via NewsAlert).
HOLLYWOOD’S FIRST AMENDMENT HYPOCRISY.
KVOA: A NEWS REPORT ON PREPARATIONS FOR THE TUCSON TEA PARTY. (Embedded video removed because its autoplay was annoying. Sorry — I didn’t realize it would do that)
WELL, GOOD: “President Barack Obama on Friday picked Brigham Young University law professor Larry EchoHawk to lead the Bureau of Indian Affairs.” As I’ve noted before, if there’s one thing you can never have too much of, it’s law professors in positions of authority.
A TEA PARTY PROTEST IN PITTSBURGH: Reader Richard Ames sends this photo, and writes: “The crowd was thoroughly exercised, but it had a good time too.”
UPDATE: A report from Lincoln, Nebraska: “Hundreds of Nebraskans chanted no taxation without representation in protest of increased government spending spawned by the stimulus bill at the state capitol Saturday. The tea party style protest is intended to mimic Revolutionary War era protests where citizens believed they were being unfairly taxed. But instead of throwing bags of tea in the water, protestors at today’s rally brought cans of pork and beans to symbolize their unhappiness with pork barrel spending. Protestors say elected officials aren’t listening to their concerns and the massive spending plans enacted by the government place an unfair tax on Americans.”
Plus, a report from the lefty “New Way Forward” protest in Boulder. “It might have numbered 25 at one point. That would include the two police officers. Most of the people on the Boulder Mall ignored them. . . . It’s hard for me to believe that any people in this crowd actually pay income taxes.” More, including photos, at the link. Perhaps it’ll be bigger in some other cities.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Well it wasn’t much bigger in Chicago, though I suppose technically 30 is more than 25. Andrew Marcus has a report with pictures and (soon) video: Tens Of Protesters Rally For Bank Nationalization In Chicago – A New Way Forward!
Here’s one picture from the Chicago “A New Way Forward” rally. Not nearly as many as turned out for the Chicago Tea Party not long ago.
MORE: Here’s a report from the ANWF rally in Washington, DC. “The group’s website claimed that 438 people planned to attend. But only about a dozen lonely souls showed.” Video at the link. They were outnumbered by an anti-Iran protest. Plus, Jane Hamsher ducks an interview!
Plus, I love this comment on Hamsher’s D.C. appearance: “Why is it necessary to use a bullhorn when the number of people attending your rally can fit in your living room?”
STILL MORE: Reader Steven Potter sends cellphone pics from the San Diego Tea Party today. And, in a step toward closing the vital Giant Puppet Gap, there were pinatas in the shape of Barney Frank and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
MORE STILL: A lame response from Jane Hamsher: At least, if heavily-promoted coverage is the same as “financing” then the MSM “financed” Obama’s campaign. Which equivalence, come to think of it, may make her comment kinda fair . . . .
STILL MORE: No wonder Jane Hamsher thinks there’s got to be a shadowy group behind the grassroots efforts. It’s what she’s used to. “Because that’s the way Rahm plays.”
BOOMS, BUSTS, AND MAXIMIZING electoral satisfaction.
TOY NOSTALGIA: remembering Creepy Crawlers and The Thingmaker. With video. I had a Strange Change Machine, which was sort of like this but used memory plastic so you could crush the creations and then restore them with heat.
SO, TELL ME AGAIN, WHO WERE THE RUBES?
Civil liberties advocates blasted the Bush administration for subjecting Guantanamo Bay captives to indefinite detention and for denying them access to federal courts. The outrage over Guantanamo Bay among President Obama’s liberal base and among the populations of certain United States allies (particularly in Europe) probably explains why President Obama’s first set of executive orders included a provision directing the closure of the controversial detention facility.
The Obama administration, however, has taken the position that Supreme Court’s reasoning in Boumediene does not confer habeas rights to Bagram detainees. This is the same argument that the Bush administration made. This logic, however, could support the capture and transfer of individuals to Bagram, where they could face prolonged and indefinite detention and denial of access to United States courts. Bagram could become the functional equivalent of Guantanamo Bay.
Glenn Greenwald comments:
My, what a ringing and inspiring defense of habeas corpus that was from candidate Barack Obama. So moving and eloquent and passionate. And that George W. Bush sure was an awful tyrant for trying to “create a legal black hole at Guantanamo” — apparently, all Good People devoted to a restoration of the rule of law and the Constitution know that the place where the U.S. should “create a legal black hole” for abducted detainees is Bagram, not Guantanamo. What a fundamental difference that is. . . . The Obama DOJ is now squarely to the Right of an extremely conservative, pro-executive-power, Bush 43-appointed judge on issues of executive power and due-process-less detentions.
Yeah, it’s as if all that talk about the evil power-grabs of the Bush Administration was just insincere electioneering. What made those power-grabs evil, in Obama’s eyes, wasn’t that they were power-grabs. It was that they were by the Bush Administration. The rest was just talk. Some of us are less surprised than others at this development.
UPDATE: “A Guantanamo by any other name?”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Barry Dauphin emails: “Next thing you know, waterboarding won’t be torture at Bagram. Hope and Change!” They’ll rename it “Aquaplaning.”
SOME California celebrity tax deadbeats. Well, there are still some cabinet slots open, I think . . . .
ABC NEWS: Murtha’s Ties To Center Under Scrutiny. “How close is Rep. John P. ‘Jack’ Murtha (D-PA) to the government-funded lab reportedly under federal investigation? Past issues of the lab’s internal newsletter give some insight. . . . The center has received over $250 million in its 10 years; reports say “tens of millions” of those dollars have gone to clients of a lobby firm, PMA Group, with close ties to Murtha and his office. Federal investigators have reviewed documents and interviewed people who have worked at EOC, and the interviews included questions about Murtha as well as another lawmaker.”
The “other lawmaker” is Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-IN).
IT’S A MEME: “To channel Glenn Reynolds, they told me that the government would assault journalists and censor the news if I voted Republican — and they were right! A Washington DC reporter for a local public-radio station got accosted by guards after trying to conduct an interview at a VA hospital, on orders of its press flack. David Schultz had to hand over the memory card from his camera in order to escape.” They had no right to do that, and Schultz should sue. Perhaps he should also seek to have them prosecuted for theft: “Schultz blames his inexperience for his decision to surrender the card, but the real crime here is that the VA stole Schultz’ equipment with no jurisdiction or court order to do so, in a deliberate attempt to censor the news.”
WHO IS Brenda Morris?
A HUGE REASON not to sue someone.