This Friday I’m REALLY phoning it in….

click for fun:

Have a great weekend!!!

~73v

This is an Open Thread: The First Amendment Lives

In a brilliant act of courage the United States Senate confirmed Michael Mukasey as the next Attorney General of the United States. Let the reign of Alberto lite begin.

USA

Protest Greets Police Plan to Map Muslim Angelenos

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

Published: November 9, 2007

A plan by the counterterrorism bureau of the Los Angeles Police Department to create a map detailing the Muslim communities in that city, an effort described as a step toward thwarting radicalization, has angered civil rights groups, which say it is no better than racial profiling.

At least three major Muslim groups and the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter yesterday to top city officials raising concerns about the plan.

“When the starting point for a police investigation is ‘let’s look at all Muslims,’ we are going down a dangerous road,” Peter Bibring, a lawyer with the A.C.L.U. of Southern California, said in an interview. “Police can and should be engaged with the communities they are policing, but that engagement can’t be a mask for intelligence gathering.”

Thanks to the Bush administrations fear mongering, overt racism and all around hatred Los Angles police department has made a map. Does this remind anyone of a other place and time, say from the 1930’s.

Lawmakers Criticize FEMA’s Handling of Hazards Posed by Trailers

By Spencer S. Hsu

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, November 9, 2007; Page A05

Nearly four months after the Federal Emergency Management Agency promised to study the risk of formaldehyde in trailers provided to Hurricane Katrina survivors, none of 52,000 occupied units have been tested, and FEMA has warned its employees for their own safety to stay out of 70,000 similar trailers in storage.

“This double-standard is wholly unacceptable,” Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said in a written statement, accusing FEMA of hiding the extent of trailer contamination and leaving “American disaster victims exposed to a whole new nightmare.”

Ah FEMA: Diligently working to keep the no-bid contracts of Bush’s cronies safe and those effected by Katrina in as much distress as they can muster.

California, other states sue U.S. on car emissions

By Adam Tanner

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, demanding a quick federal decision that would allow the nation’s most populous state to limit greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.

“California is ready to implement the nation’s cleanest standards for vehicle emissions, but we cannot do that until the federal government grants a waiver allowing us to enforce those standards,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said.

According to Rush Limbaugh and his Luddite friends there is no global warming. Its a lie created by liberals. Such big lies that permafrost in Alaska is melting for the first time, Arctic sea ice is disappearing and temperatures have gone up. But, no worries we’ll just purchase life jackets and tread water for the rest of our days. It will be a regular pool party.

Asia

Police ring Bhutto home in crackdown

By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

November 9, 2007

LAHORE, Pakistan – Security forces placed former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto under virtual house arrest early today as a crackdown on President Pervez Musharraf’s opponents continued, a day after he bowed to enormous political pressure and pledged to hold parliamentary elections by mid-February.

Tensions and the threat of violent confrontation are likely to remain high. Bhutto vowed Thursday to press ahead with a rally planned today in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, outside Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, despite warnings from authorities that it would not be allowed and could come under attack by suicide bombers

Democracy returning to Pakistan: Benazir Bhutto under arrest and phony elections scheduled for February 15, 2008. I’m sure the anticipation for this seminal event is as high as a sunken ship.

Japan’s police see no evil

TOKYO – Photos of the teenager’s corpse show a deep cut on his right arm, horrific bruising on his neck and chest. His face is swollen and covered with cuts. A silhouette of violence runs from the corner of his left eye over the cheekbone to his jaw, and his legs are pocked with small burns the size of a lighted cigarette.

I see nothing! Of course not. why try to find out the real cause of death it just might embarrass some one.

Europe

An exasperated Italy targets foreigners

ROME — Alexandru Nekifor, a waiter, thinks it’s advisable these days not to tell anyone he’s Romanian. Laurentiu Apostal, a construction worker, has watched this last week as terrified friends packed up and fled Italy, headed back to Romania or to other lands.

A wave of violent crime blamed largely on foreigners, including the especially brutal killing of a naval commander’s wife, has pushed the center-left Italian government into deportations that human rights activists say are unprecedented in European Union history.

The Italian government Nov. 2 enacted an emergency decree that allows local authorities to swiftly expel foreign nationals from EU countries if they are deemed a threat to public health or security. So far, about 30 people have been rounded up and ordered deported, all of them thought to be Romanians and many of Roma, or Gypsy, background.

Racism always the best excuse for dehumanizing those not like you.

North Sea surge brings flood risk

A storm in the North Sea has left Britain and the Netherlands facing the worst flood threat in decades with tidal surges predicted early on Friday.

Flood defences have been put on alert on the entire Dutch coast and flood warnings are in place for the eastern and northern coasts of Britain.

A tidal wave in 1953 killed more than 2,000 people in both countries.

Middle East

US releases nine Iranians in Iraq

The US military in Iraq has released nine Iranians detained there, including two held on suspicion of helping Shia militants, it has said in a statement.

The release followed a review of their cases which concluded that the men no longer posed a security risk and were “of no continued intelligence value”.

The Iranians were released to the Iraqi government, which will later transfer them to the Iranian embassy in Baghdad.

Tehran has dismissed US accusations that it is aiding insurgents in Ira

Making friends and creating enemies. Heck of a job George.

Institute to get ancient bible parchment

JERUSALEM – The family of man who held a fragment of a more than 1,000-year-old manuscript of the Hebrew Bible for six decades as a good luck charm will present it to a Jerusalem institute next week, officials said Thursday.

The parchment, about “the size of a credit card,” is believed to be part of the most authoritative manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, the Aleppo Codex, said Michael Glatzer, academic secretary of the Yad Ben Zvi institute. It contains verses from the Book of Exodus describing the plagues in Egypt, including the words of Moses to Pharaoh, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.”

Latin America

New UN envoy sees long Haiti mission

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – U.N. peacekeepers will likely remain in Haiti for several more years because the troubled Caribbean country is not close to managing its own security, the mission’s new chief envoy said Thursday.

Hedi Annabi, in his first interview since assuming control of a 7,800-member U.N. force and hundreds of international staff in Haiti, told The Associated Press that the U.N. mission has made great strides, but will not seek to leave the volatile country anytime soon.

“The security situation is extremely fragile. And if we were to downsize dramatically there would be a vacuum that would be immediately backfilled by the same people that were there when we got started,” said Annabi, sitting in his office in the hills above Port-au-Prince.

U.S. says war on narcotics is working

By Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

November 9, 2007

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA — Interruptions of the flow of cocaine to the United States are causing street prices to rise, a sign that the “war on drugs” is working, the White House anti-drug chief said here Thursday.

John P. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, told reporters that interdictions in Colombia, in other countries along cocaine transit routes and on the open seas were reducing drug supplies, according to data on price and purity gathered in 37 major U.S. cities.

As a result of reduced supply, street cocaine prices over the first nine months of the year rose to an average $136.93 per pure gram at the end of September, a 44% increase from January, he said. Price and purity data were supported by other measures, including reduced evidence of cocaine use as found in workplace tests, he said.

Africa

Appeal court ruling against Zuma intensifies ANC power struggle

Chris McGreal in Johannesburg

Friday November 9, 2007

The Guardian

The bitter power struggle between President Thabo Mbeki and his former deputy, Jacob Zuma, for control of the ruling African National Congress intensified yesterday when a South African court opened the way for Mr Zuma to be charged with corruption over a multi-billion dollar weapons deal.

The court of appeal’s ruling that the police seizure of allegedly incriminating documents from Mr Zuma’s home and office was legal was expected to undermine his campaign as the favoured candidate to unseat Mr Mbeki as party leader at an ANC congress next month and so become the country’s president in 2009.

Church row evolves over fossil boy

Rob Crilly in Nairobi

Turkana Boy, considered the most complete early human fossil, is being removed from his bomb-proof vault to take centre stage at an exhibition that curators say will provide the most complete record of the evolution of Man.

However, the collection, to be show-cased for the first time at the Nairobi National Museum after a £5 million renovation financed by the European Union, has drawn sharp criticism from evangelical Christians who deny the theory of evolution.

Today, I give you the usual list.

If you like to trade books, try BookMooch.

What are you reading?  is crossposted to daily Kos

Just finished:

The light fantastic by Terry Pratchett.  More Discworld fun; this is the second Discworld novel, and Pratchett hasn’t really hit his stride, although it is still very good.

Continuing with
How Mathematicians Think by William Byers.

Last week:
Fascinating ideas about ambiguity, paradox, and math.
Really quite an amazing work, and relatively accessible.  I recommend it to anyone interested in math. Some of the later chapters get into some less accessible math, but I think they can be skipped around, without losing too much. 

I’ve read about 10 explanations of what exactly Euler’s formula (e ^ i*pi = -1) actually means.  I understand the arguments, but I still don’t really get it, intuitively.  On the other hand, this book has one of  the clearest explanations of the roots of unity that I’ve seen. 

This week:  Nearly done with this one.  It remains fascinating.

Causality by Judea Pearl.  Fascinating but deep.

Intro to Probability Theory by Hoel, Port, and Stone.  A good text.

The Elements of Statistical Learning by Trevor Hastie and Robert Tibshirani.  An in-depth look at a wide range of statistical techniques.  Beautifully produced.

The Politics of Congressional Elections by Gary Jacobson

Just started
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett.  Hilarious.

‘Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country; yet panics, in some cases, have their uses- the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than before.  They are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered.

They have the same effect on secret traitors, many a disguised Tory has lately shown his head.

I have been tender in raising the cry against these men, and used numberless arguments to show them their danger; but it will not do to sacrifice a world either to their folly or their baseness.  The period is now arrived in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall.

And what is a Tory?  What is he?  Every Tory is a coward; for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of Toryism; and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, can never be brave.

But, before the line of irrecoverable separation be drawn between us, let us reason the matter together: Your conduct is an invitation to the enemy, yet not one in a thousand of you has heart enough to join him.  He is as much deceived by you as the American cause is injured by you.  He expects you will all take up arms, and flock to his standard with muskets on your shoulders. Your opinions are of no use to him, unless you support him personally, for ’tis soldiers, and not Tories, that he wants.

I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to feel, against the mean principles that are held by the Tories- “Well! give me peace in my day.”  I consider W the greatest enemy the Tories have.  He is bringing a war into their country which, had it not been for him and partly for themselves, they had been clear of.

Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it.  Say not that thousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands.  Throw not the burden of the day upon Providence, but show your faith by your works.

It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all.  The far and the near, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike.  The heart that feels not now is dead, the blood of your children will curse your cowardice which shrank back at a time when a little might have saved the whole and made them happy.

‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but one whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.  My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light.

Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man.  I conceive likewise a horrid idea in receiving mercy from a being who at the last day shall be shrieking to the rocks and mountains to cover him, and fleeing with terror from the orphan, the widow, and the slain of America.

There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one.  There are persons too who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful.

It is the madness of folly to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice.  Even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war.

He is mercifully inviting you to barbarous destruction, and men must be either rogues or fools that will not see it.  I dwell not upon the vapors of imagination, I bring reason to your ears and, in language as plain as A B C, hold up truth to your eyes.

I thank God, that I fear not.  I see no real cause for fear.  I know our situation well, and can see the way out of it.

By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils.

Look on this picture and weep over it!  And if there yet remains one thoughtless wretch who believes it not, let him suffer it unlamented.

Tom Paine

“Game show format” may be the best way to describe the 2007 presidential primary debates. The networks seem determined to transform America’s political debate into entertainment and the parties and candidates seem to be playing right along.

With the writers’ strike underway, the networks may be seeking to transform American politics into the next reality television show. If so, then Americans may finally be given the “worm”.

In Australia, the “worm” has been a part of televised debates for more than a decade. Each audience member controls a dial to register a range of reaction to what is being presented from total disapproval to complete agreement. As the audience reacts, a squiggly line graph snakes across the screen displaying their positive or negative responses.

The “worm” was developed by the market research company Roy Morgan Research, which calls their tool “The Reactor”. The company claims that “unlike all other concept testing techniques, the Reactor provides the unvarnished opinions of respondents who provide immediate, instinctive feedback on how they feel about your product, concept or medium, element by element, second by second.”

Australia’s politicians have a love-hate relationship with the “worm”. A positive “worm” line will generate some favorable stories in the media for the candidate, while a negative “worm” can put a candidate on the defensive in the same way bad poll results can do. “I’m glad the worm doesn’t have a vote,”
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said after a 2004 debate that the “worm” showed that he done poorly. Howard and the Liberal Party went on to win the 2004 parliamentary elections as he did in 2001 and 1998 despite bad “worm” performances each time.

The “worm” in action during Australia’s Howard-Rudd debate in October.

But this October, Howard and Kevin Rudd, the Labor Party leader, met for their only face-to-face debate in this year’s elections. Howard ‘demanded’ the “worm” not be used and Rudd wanted it to be used. When Australia’s Channel Nine began running the “worm” during the debate, the network’s debate feed was cut about halfway into the debate. Charges of government censorship of the press were made by Channel Nine. Howard, for his part, denied responsibility for the debate blackout. But the cowering of the other networks and the debate hosts may help explain what has kept the “worm” away from America’s televised debates.

In 1987, the trustees of the League of Women Voters voted unanimously to withdraw its sponsorship for America’s presidential debates, stating “because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates’ organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.”

Since then the presidential debates have noticeably declined as each party tries to control all aspects of the debate to its candidate’s advantage. The 2004 presidential debates, for example, were heavily negotiated.

This stylised piece of political theatre followed negotiations between Republican and Democrat campaign officials expressed in a 32-page agreement that covered details ranging from the choice of moderator to the height of and distance between the candidates’ lecterns. The candidates were precluded from asking questions of each other.

Are the parties losing control of the debates to the networks? The game show formats and ‘lightning rounds’ of the recent debates may be a sign of the media corporations gaining the upper hand. All the primaries run-up debates have been broadcast only on the hosting network. In the recent Republican debate, Fox ‘News’ demanded that Sen. John McCain cease and desist from using debate footage broadcast on its network, while allowing Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign to use debate footage.

Since political debate has become a charade, maybe it is time to complete the transformation? The corporate networks could start to dictate the terms and more gimmicks may start appearing on TV during the debates.

Alex, I’ll take “Bloviation and Bombast” for 200.

With a writers’ strike underway, the networks are expected to run more reality television shows. Much of our political debate has become little more than 30 second campaign commercials. Maybe the next step in transforming our politics into entertainment is reality television. Could audience and viewer participation voting formats such as “American Idol” work for American political debate? Would a presidential contender “Survival” show increase interest with American voters viewers?

Networks will never know if they don’t try it. Maybe even the debate “worm” might make its long-delayed appearance across America’s television screens.

_{Cross-posted on Daily Kos.}

The election results coming out of places like Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Virginia this week should be a wakeup call for Congressional Democrats.

Wow. Ernie Fletcher – Republic governor of the same state that has sent Mitch McConnell to the United States Senate without fail since Ronald Reagan sat in the Oval Office, the same state that gave George Bush 57% and 60%, respectively, in the last two presidential elections – gets tossed out on his ear in a huge landslide.

Oh – did I say, “Republic governor”? Excuse me, I meant, “corrupt Republic governor” – which might be a tautology; I’m not sure.

Yeah – the voters of Kentucky – not exactly the most rabid tree-huggin’, latte-sippin’, windsurfin’, gun-takin’, terrist-lovin’ bunch of folks you could find – overwhelmingly told the Republic governor to stuff it.

On the same day, the voters of Virginia decided that 12 years of Republic control of the state Senate was enough, and tossed the bums out. Ohio’s largest Republic-governed city decided it no longer wanted to be Ohio’s largest Republic-governed city. Voters in Mississippi gave control of the state Senate back to Democrats.

To what exactly do you think the generally awful showing of Republics on Tuesday was due? I’m gonna guess that it wasn’t – with all due respect and gratitude, and as much as Democratic Party regulars might want to believe otherwise – simply because of stellar GOTV work on the part of the local party faithful (although that no doubt played a significant role). 

No, I don’t think Tuesday’s gratifying election results came about because of anything the national Democratic Party has done to effect such an outcome; if anything, I’d say the results came in spite of the DNC. What has happened in the last four years to change so many people’s minds in Virginia and Kentucky and Ohio and Mississippi?  It certainly hasn’t been the implementation of the so-called “Democratic agenda” that has so enamored all of those voters of Democrats all of a sudden. So what is it, then? What does it prove?

It proves that the American people are waking up.

The American people are fed up with the actions of Republics over the past six years.  They are angry that they must be ashamed for their country, a country that was – for most of their lives – respected around the world.  They are appalled by the hypocrisy of the Republics over the past six years.  They are furious over the mismanagement, the criminal mismanagement, of the Republics over the past six years.  They have woken up to the catastrophe that has been the Republic Party over the past six years.  They are looking to the Democrats to address that catastrophe – hence the strong victories in so many state and local races this week.

But the story on the national front is quite a bit different. Unfortunately, so far, for the most part, Democrats in the 110th Congress have let the voters  down miserably; they have failed to do “The People’s Work” of which politicians on both sides of the aisle are so fond of speaking. But there is still time for Democrats to redeem themselves.

“The People’s Work”

Democrats are fond of rationalizing their failure to get results on the two issues most important to the voters who put them into power in November 2006 by trying to convince us that What’s Really More Important than what the voters said was important is something called “The People’s Work”. They would like for us to believe their bald-faced excuse that they “don’t have time” to pursue such matters as impeachment, or that they can’t risk appearing “too partisan” or “too political” or “too vindictive,” or that “it’s not what the American people elected us to do.”

Heh. Funny you should mention, “what the American people elected us to do.”

A Pew poll released yesterday found that 43% of those surveyed believe that the 110th Congress has accomplished “less than usual.” When that question was asked a year ago – in the last month before the November 2006 election, when the Republic Congress got turned on its head; in other words, when the question was asked about the Republic Congress in its last throes – that number was only 39%.

Let’s pause for effect here: A greater perecentage of the American people think the Democratic 110th Congress isn’t doing enough, than felt that way about the Republic 109th Congress just days before the November 2006 elections in which the Republics were thrown out.

Even more significantly, when asked who is to blame for such a lack of results, the shift since last year is startling:

Many of us have been saying anecdotally for many months that – completely aside from die-hard left-wingers and lifelong Democrats – many, many independent voters, as well as an increasing number of former Republics who have reached the breaking point watching their country destroyed by those bearing the insignia of their now-unrecognizable party, have been looking for someone – anyone – to smack the criminal BushCheney administration upside the head with a 2×4 and set this nation back on the proper path. (And, in that vein, if you have not read Leftcenterlibertarian’s excellent diary from the other day on this very question, you should.) In November 2006, enough such disgruntled Americans went to the polls that they got their wish: Anybody But A Republican took control of Congress. It only remained to be seen whether, in fact, the new Democratic Congress would do what was necessary to right the badly listing ship of state.

But alas, the unwillingness of the 110th Congress over the past 10 months to stand up to the continuing abuses of this administration – indeed, to too often actively enable such abuses – has led many who just a year ago laid the blame for such moral gelatinousness squarely at the feet of the Republic Congress, to now blame equally the Democratic Congress, as shown by the above chart.

So, Congressional Democrats – please explain to me again just exactly how this strategy of not standing up to the criminals of the BushCheney administration is helping your electoral chances in 2008? And, just to be clear, let’s cite this from the Pew press release yesterday (emphasis added):

Overall, 43% say the current Congress has accomplished less than recent sessions, while just 5% say it has accomplished more; 42% say it has accomplished about the same as past sessions. These ratings are comparable with those for the Republic-led Congress in 2006, shortly before it was voted out of power.

There will be those Democratic “strategists” who will argue that, “But, but, but – what the voters meant when they said that Congress ‘hasn’t accomplished anything’ is that the president’s veto threats have prevented us from moving forward the Democratic Agenda. He’s kept us from doing The People’s Work!

“And of course,” they will go on, “we know that’s what the voters meant when they said Congress ‘wasn’t accomplishing enough,’ because, after all, we are leaders, and those silly voters – *sniff* – are merely advocates – and, therefore, we know best what they really want. I mean, really, there’s a difference between Congress ‘accomplishing’ things, and holding the administration accountable for its actions. Gosh!”

Ahem:

“But we can’t impeach! Look what happened the last time Congress impeached the president – it was a disaster! The voters will turn on us like hyenas if we make this a political circus!”

Do you think we’re that stupid? Do you honestly believe the American people can’t tell the difference between what Bill Clinton did – and what the Republic Congress did in response – and what George Bush and Dick Cheney have done, and what the Democratic Congress must do in response?

Please don’t insult the American people.

And please don’t ignore reality – that’s a Republic failing. The reality, as shown by the numbers in the latest Pew poll, is that the American people are intelligent enough to recognize what “The People’s Work” really is.  They are intelligent enough to recognize that investigating the possible impeachment of a president and vice president who have been responsible for:

– the use of torture

– the illegal warrantless wiretapping of innocent American civilians

– the outing of a covert CIA agent during a time of war

– the profligate waste of hundreds of billions of dollars in an illegal, unjustified war of aggression, most of which has gone to big business and Republic campaign donors

– the sacrifice of thousands of American soldiers in the same illegal, unjustified war of aggression

– the virtual destruction of America’s armed services in the same illegal, unjustified war of aggression, to such an extent that the security of the nation is at risk

– the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians in the same illegal, unjustified war of aggression

– lying to Congress and the American people about the rationale for the same illegal, unjustified war of aggression

– the criminally negligent abandonment of a major American city during a natural disaster that was foreseen, and the subsequent breathtakingly cavalier mismanagement and sometimes actively obstructionist interference with rescue and recovery efforts

– actively engaging in and abetting obstruction of justice with respect to congressional investigations, including defiance of duly authorized Congressional subpoenas of White House personnel

– supporting, orchestrating, and taking part in an active effort to deceive the American people about the status of the environment, particularly with respect to global warming

– would truly constitute “The People’s Work.”

By the same token, the American people recognize that spending scores of millions of dollars on investigations into nonexistent financial improprieties and impeaching a president for lying about a blow job is not “The People’s Work.” The American people know the difference.

The DCCC’s thoughts on “The People’s Work”

Ironically, Democrats might even have sort of understood why they were sent to Congress by the voters back in November 2006. From the DCCC website:

Taking America in a New Direction

Last November, the American people said they were tired with [sic] the way business was done in Washington. They demanded a change in leadership and new direction for our nation.

So far, so good, right? (Well, except for the grammatical error, I mean.) Yeah, well, guess what the very next sentence says? Do you think it crows about the Democrats’ successes in halting the occupation of Iraq? Does it, perhaps, sing the praises of congressional Democrats in putting a stop to illegal wiretapping of American citizens? Or maybe it recounts the rigorous questioning various administration officials have faced under oath when subpoenaed by Congress?

Sadly, no. None of those has actually happened – YET! No, what does the very next sentence on the DCCC homepage, the literal banner trumpeting the most significant achievements of the Democratic 110th Congress, say about what great successes that 110th has brought back to the American people after being entrusted with the awesome power of the world’s greatest legislative body? You’ll be pleased to know that

Democrats have raised the level of civility and fairness in the House while delivering on the issues that our [sic] important to our nation.

[Diarist’s note: You just can’t make this stuff up.]

Wow. Thank you, House Democrats! I am horribly afraid yet somehow oddly resigned that the heightened level of civility and fairness in the House has been and will forever remain the signal achievement of the 110th Congress.

The Republic take: A separate reality

I guess you can read into these results anything you want; the Republics certainly have.

But maybe – just maybe – another benefit of this week’s election results is that they will serve as a shot across the bow for Republics in Congress – in other words, a few Republic heads on pikes at the city gates might help to clarify exactly what happens to those who cling desperately to The Party of Corruption and War.  Carried to its logical extreme among its own members, the Republic mantra of, “Fuck you – I’ve got mine!” is cannibalizing the party. It’s like the ultimate Ponzi scheme (as home buyers in Virginia’s once-very-red Loudoun County are finding out, to their great chagrin), where unless you’re at the top, you’re on the bottom. Impending political death has a way of focusing the mind wonderfully.

It wasn’t until the wise men of the Republic Party paid him a visit in the summer of 1974 that Richard Nixon truly understood that he had no choice but to step down.  The Republics, acting not out of an elevated sense of duty to the Constitution or to the country, but rather out of that most base instinct operating inside the Beltway, political survival, in essence told Nixon, we can’t afford to keep you anymore.  Nixon was the anchor still tied to  the Republic Party, and he threatened to drag down everyone on board if he stayed in office.  It was a political calculus, pure and simple.

It may be that the results of this week’s elections will cause more than a few Republic congressional candidates (those of the incumbent variety) to sweat a bit, to loosen their collars, to hear footsteps, to cast furtive, targeting glances around them, in a way that betrays their abject fear of losing their positions of power and influence.  It may be that the results of this week’s elections will bring those Republics just that much closer to the point where they will send a delegation to sit down with George W. Bush or Dick Cheney and explain to them The Way Things Are – because,  at that time, we will have the votes to impeach.

A parting thought

So I’m listening today to a recorded interview that local progressive host Marc Germain on LA’s KTLK 1150 has done with Howard Dean, and Marc asks Gov. Dean why impeachment is off the table. Dean responds, going right down the talking points: (1) It’s not what the American people want; (2) It’ll divide the country; (3) It’ll take too long; and (4) Congress will get nothing else done in the meantime, just like with the Nixon and Clinton impeachments.

Oh. My. GOD. Please, Governor Dean, I love ya dearly, but please don’t make me embarrass you with the facts. OK, if I have to: (1) In fact, the American people almost assuredly do want it looked into; (2) I’m sorry – divide the country? Yeah – into the flat-earth crowd and the rest of America, who believe in the value of preserving the Constitution; (3) The Clinton impeachment took less than 13 months from start to finish, from the day Linda Tripp first walked into Ken Starr’s office with her taped conversations with Monica Lewinsky to the final vote in the Senate; (4) Uh, I’m not quite sure how this stacks up, but during the 93rd Congress (during which the Watergate affair was investigated and impeachment articles drawn up), the Senate alone introduced more than 4,200 bills. So far, halfway through the 110th Congress, with no impeachment in sight, the Senate has introduced just over 2,300 bills. The House numbers were 17,690 bills introduced during the 93rd Congress, 4,112 bills introduced so far during the first half of the 110th – and besides, Gov. Dean, are you implying that, even if it were true that “nothing got done” during the Watergate investigations, that it wouldn’t have been the right thing to do?

Thanks for reading!

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Recently, in a remarkable essay for the New York Review of Books, famed Russian biophysicist and political activist Sergei Kovalev wrote:

I imagine-with both sorrow and certainty-that the Byzantine system of power has triumphed for the foreseeable future in Russia. It’s too late to remove it from power by a normal democratic process, for democratic mechanisms have been liquidated, transformed into pure imitation. I am afraid that few of us will live to see the reinstatement of freedom and democracy in Russia.

Kovalev’s words echoed something recently said to me by Meteor Blades: “I expect to die as part of the permanent internal opposition in the Democratic Party. I don’t see any more Sanderses on the horizon, of any stripe. Maybe in your lifetime, but not likely in mine.”

I cannot begin to say how disheartening it is to hear such things from such lions of political activism, both of whom went to prison rather than relinquish their right to fight for their freedom and the freedom of their fellows.  The following is a letter sent to one of my Senators, Chuck Schumer, which is my response to the conclusions of Kovalev and MB.

Dear Senator Schumer,

As one of your constituents, I’d like to speak to you for a moment about our nation, our government, and your recent decision to support Michael Mukasey as President Bush’s nominee for Attorney General.

Despite my disgust for the possibility of Mukasey as Attorney General, I understand your vote.  It was the right thing for you to do, from your own point of view.  The consequences of your support are for you, remote.  Neither this or any other small action is likely to see you defeated in either a primary or general election.  It will not stem your financial support from New Yorkers, nor to the DSCC which you lead.  And there is surely some truth in your belief that Mukasey is as good of a nominee as any of us can hope for from President Bush, no matter how many times his nominees are rejected.

I must, however, remind you of one thing.  All of this only makes sense if things continue as they have in America.  That we have two political parties, each comfortably secure in their places of power.  That we have a media and lobbyist culture where even defeated representatives can be assured of a lucrative and influential role in the government of our country.  And that the American people will be willing to go on forever with generally indifferent and ineffective government.

This ought to be a pretty good bet.  But do not forget the risk that it runs.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the founders of the United States is that as they set up their new government, they did so while believing and acting upon the notion that government was the enemy of the people, and that they were creating as little government as possible because of it.  This is unprecedented in human events.  Who would choose to create a government while trying to cripple it and warn people to fear it?  Our founding fathers, of course.

What would those founders have made of the America we live in today?  One where habeas corpus is no longer a promise to all American citizens?  One where our government spys on our telephone calls and internet activity, not secretly as in the Hoover era, but claiming openly the need to?  One where the highest officials in the land claim not merely the right, but the need, to torture suspects?  One where the executive branch of the government can simply write a letter and be granted the power to search private homes, and deny citizens the right to even speak of the searches?

This is merely, of course, what us common Americans know about.  Hardly a week goes by lately without a new outrage against the American people coming to light, such as propaganda news conferences by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  Should we still believe our press to be able to uncover all acts such as this by our government?  Or should we realize that simply because you are bad at it now, we have no reason to believe that our government could well improve at such trickery of the people?

Which is where the risk of your wager on Mukasey appears.  Because Americans are the spiritual heirs of our founders.  We have been taught since infancy that liberty is more important than life.  And we believe it. 

As a New York Senator, you may well know a bit about hedge funds.  The basic description of what they do is to hedge risky investments against other investments, to mitigate the risk posed to their capital.  I propose that you learn from their example.

Because voting for Mukasey is a risk to the American people which can only be mitigated if steps are taken to ensure that the American government does not illegally spy on Americans, does not use torture to coerce suspects into giving evidence against themselves, does not use extra-legal powers to search citizens’ homes, and does not deny held suspects the right to challenge their detention in court.  The only way to mitigate the risk Mukasey poses to Americans, and by extention yourself, is to use every tool in your power to make such things outside of the ability of the American government.

Because the country that you and I live in today is no longer the America the Constitution describes.  And I, with others like me, are not willing to live quietly as well-cared-for serfs.  We will live free, as the saying goes, or die.  And as we go, so goes the United States of America.

Will you do what it takes to ensure that all of us live freely?

Originally posted at Daily Kos