November 2007 archive

The latest demonstration of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s feckless leadership was the 53-40 kabuki vote late on November 8th to confirm Michael B. Mukasey as Attorney General. Mukasey had refused to regard the abusive technique called waterboarding to be torture and therefore a prosecutable criminal act. Mukasey understands whom he is supposed to shield.

Democrats quickly announced the intention to introduce legislation outlawing waterboarding. But why? As Evan Wallach pointed out in The Washington Post on November 4th, numerous legal precedents prove that waterboarding already is illegal and prosecutable.

Are Democrats, having caved on Mukasey’s confirmation, now about to make yet another strategic blunder by proceeeding with this legislation?

WARNING NOTICE: Reflecting on this question and exploring the links below may lead to severe loss of equanimity and cause political activism or emigration to a still-civilized country.

I stepped out on the porch a few weeks ago and saw a Mexican wedding cookie moon, sliced gently in half and laid on the silent cool black table of the night sky. Gauzy high clouds formed a foggy backdrop scrim against an inky proscenium.

The straight-edge half of the moon was dialed down to east-nor’east, as a quarter hour of midnight drained away on the clock of the galaxy.

don’t rec the pony party, but do play nicely together and remember: be excellent to each other!

Most thoughtful people would agree that we have an obligation to advance the cause of civilization.  We owe it to our children, our grandchildren, and to posterity.  We are not only stewards of the earth, as are all human beings, but we Americans are also stewards of the original American vision as established in 1776.  Remember the cause of liberty?

Some news and your afternoon Open Thread.

1. The AP reports of a Major earthquake strikes Chile. “A major earthquake rocked a large area of northern Chile on Wednesday, toppling power lines and closing roads. There were no immediate reports of injuries from the quake, which was felt in the capital as well as neighboring Peru and Bolivia. The earthquake, which struck at 10:40 a.m. EST, measured magnitude 7.7 and was centered 780 miles north of Santiago, or 25 miles east-southeast of Tocopilla, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The USGS said it occurred about 37.3 miles beneath the surface.” Reuters reports people have been injured and buildings have been damaged. “Tocopilla, a city 75 miles north of Antofagasta, was the hardest hit by the quake and Chile’s Interior Ministry said it had preliminary reports of minor injuries. Television images showed cars crushed under the concrete awning of a hotel in Antofagasta, where power was knocked out by the quake. Frightened residents stood in the streets.”

2. The New York Times reports F.B.I. says Blackwater mercenaries killed 14 Iraqs without cause in shootout.

   Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case.

   The F.B.I. investigation into the shootings in Baghdad is still under way, but the findings, which indicate that the company’s employees recklessly used lethal force, are already under review by the Justice Department.

   Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek indictments, and some officials have expressed pessimism that adequate criminal laws exist to enable them to charge any Blackwater employee with criminal wrongdoing. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the F.B.I. declined to discuss the matter.

3. The Los Angeles Times reports about The agent with a secret past. “An illegal immigrant from Lebanon with relatives linked to the militant Islamic group Hezbollah paid a U.S. citizen to marry her and then lied her way through national security background checks to become an agent for the FBI and the CIA. She used her position to secretly access government computers for information about her relatives and a U.S. investigation into the group, authorities said Tuesday. Nada Nadim Prouty, a 37-year-old Lebanese national, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, unauthorized computer access and naturalization fraud in federal court in Detroit and agreed to cooperate with authorities in an ongoing investigation into the security breaches. Prouty’s case is a major embarrassment for the FBI and the CIA, which supposedly had tightened their personnel screening and monitoring”.

4. The Washington Post reports Republicans seek retraction of report on wars’ ‘Hidden Costs’.

   Senior Republicans on Congress’s Joint Economic Committee called yesterday for the withdrawal of a report by the committee’s Democratic staff that argues that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost more than $1.5 trillion.

   Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Rep. H. James Saxton (R-N.J.) attacked the report on “hidden costs” of the wars, calling its methodology flawed and asserting factual errors. The report, issued yesterday, said the war has cost nearly double the $804 billion in appropriations and requests for war funding thus far.

   In a joint statement, the committee’s Republicans called the report “another thinly veiled exercise in political hyperbole masquerading as academic research.”

   “All wars involve costs, and the war on terror is no exception,” Brownback and Saxton said. “The Democrats’ report would have benefited from more analysis and quality control, and less political content. We call on Senator Schumer and the Democratic leadership in the House and the Senate to withdraw this defective report.” Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) chairs the committee.

So, what else is happening?

Crossposted at DailyKos

The Superintendant of Morton West High School District has allowed 14 students to return to classes today. The others will be allowed to return on Friday. No students will be expelled.

Rita Maniotis, President of the PTO said that it is “wonderful news” and that “it’s not like our kids are walking away with nothing.” Especially since most of the students have served most of their suspension time. At least they will not be up for expulsion hearings which would have occurred in December.

A victory for “Freedom of Speech”!