I have not commented on Roman Polanski, other than my blog rules, but here goes:
The legendary Black Hole of Calcutta would be a luxury suite compared to what he should have coming to him.
Polanski had sex with a child and did so by plying her with alcohol and drugs. That is beyond dispute. He pled guilty to the charge of statutory rape. And then, before he was sentenced, he fled the country. That was 31 years ago.
He should get all of the consideration that any fugitive from justice would receive: He should be locked up, put on trial and then sent to prison. Unlawful flight across state lines is a Federal beef, punishable by five years. He could room with Bernie Madoff and then go back to California for sentencing on the underlying charge, which should be good for a few more years.
Friday, October 2, 2009
A Note to the Wingnuts Who Are Equating Rep. Grayson with Rep. Wilson
If you do not understand the difference between (a) heckling the President during his speech to a joint session of Congress, and (b) debating issues on the floor of the House of Representatives, then you are either (i) willfully blind, or (ii) an idiot.
If there is a choice (iii) or higher, feel free to comment.
If there is a choice (iii) or higher, feel free to comment.
The Evil That Was Done In the Name of Our Nation
From a commenter on Andrew Sullivan's blog:
First point: Could the Bush Administration have sunk to any lower levels of depravity and immorality? Dick Cheney might as well have been skull-fucking dead puppies.
Second: By not moving fast to clean this mess up, the Obama Administration is taking on the same stink of evil.
Third: To everyone who has been rationalizing and excusing the actions of the Bush Administration: The stink of this is all over you as well. You are the "good little Germans" of this mess. The Bush Administration was a cabal of evil. If you agree with what was done by them, if you have, to use a contract phrase, "adopted, ratified and approved" what they have done, you are a guilty and yes, as evil, as they are.
I am surprised you did not highlight what me and my colleagues agreed was the single most horrifying passage from the Court’s decision. It was the Court’s quotation of something an interrogator said to al-Rabiah during his interrogation. The interrogator told al-Rabiah:The Bush Administration was pure evil. We, the United States of America, tortured an innocent may in order to get him to confess to something that would excuse his arrest, detention and torture.“There is nothing against you. But there is no innocent person here. So, you should confess to something so you can be charged and sentenced and serve your sentence and then go back to your family and country, because you will not leave this place innocent.”
Court Memorandum and Order, p. 41 (emphasis mine).
This was not a statement pulled from the transcripts of the Nuremburg trials, nor archival evidence taken from reports smuggled out of one of Stalin’s gulags. This was a statement made by an agent of this government less than 7 years ago to a detainee. The enormity of that is nearly incomprehensible.
But even worse – far worse – is the fact that the government would nevertheless still seek to convict based on the resulting confession.
To those of us who read that passage and who vowed and make it our vocation to serve and protect the Constitution of the United States, that fact is a gut-punch. For me and my colleagues, it literally took our breath away. It makes one wonder how far down into the abyss we have allowed ourselves to drop. And whether there is the political will to find our way out.
First point: Could the Bush Administration have sunk to any lower levels of depravity and immorality? Dick Cheney might as well have been skull-fucking dead puppies.
Second: By not moving fast to clean this mess up, the Obama Administration is taking on the same stink of evil.
Third: To everyone who has been rationalizing and excusing the actions of the Bush Administration: The stink of this is all over you as well. You are the "good little Germans" of this mess. The Bush Administration was a cabal of evil. If you agree with what was done by them, if you have, to use a contract phrase, "adopted, ratified and approved" what they have done, you are a guilty and yes, as evil, as they are.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
It May Be Too Early Yet
It may be very premature to even suggest that there is a possible end to the dispute with Iran over their enrichment of uranium. Be that as it may, Iranian negotiators have signaled that Iran is willing to send its uranium to Russia for enrichment.
This is an idea that was proposed by the Russians years ago and then was not accepted. What has changed, you might ask?
Two things. First, Iran's new enrichment facility became public, which increased pressure on Iran to come to the negotiating table.
Second, there is now an American administration which does not deal with other nations as though the world community was a junior high school cafeteria and they were the cool kids. The days of senior American politically appointed diplomats spouting a childish line of: "They know what they have to do before we will talk to them" are over.
It may all fall apart, still, but at least people are talking.
This is an idea that was proposed by the Russians years ago and then was not accepted. What has changed, you might ask?
Two things. First, Iran's new enrichment facility became public, which increased pressure on Iran to come to the negotiating table.
Second, there is now an American administration which does not deal with other nations as though the world community was a junior high school cafeteria and they were the cool kids. The days of senior American politically appointed diplomats spouting a childish line of: "They know what they have to do before we will talk to them" are over.
It may all fall apart, still, but at least people are talking.
Gun Owners, CALM THE FUCK DOWN!
I received a breathless e-mail today that "zOMG, the Senate is going to require us to declare our guns on our income tax forms in Senate Bill 2099!! Call your congressman today!!!1!"
Bullshit. Calm down, people.
Senate bill 2099 does not exist. Go to Thomas.gov and search for it in the 111th Congress, if you wish. S. 2099 was indeed a gun control bill, but it was introduced 9 years ago in the 106th Congress and it died a very quick death. The "S. 2099" stuff is a complete fraud.
At least the panicky e-mails about H.R. 45 refer to a real bill, but that bill is as dead as Tom DeLay's political career. H.R. 45 has no co-sponsors. It was referred to the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security on February 9th and there it languishes. A general rule is that a bill without co-sponsors, especially if it deals with a hot-button topic, is dead the moment it is introduced. Rep. Bobby Rush introduced it, in all probability, to curry favor with the gun control nuts in his district (and to use it as a way to get donations out of them).
It is a very old game. The Republicans do the same thing when they introduce bills for banning abortion or mandating that same-sex couples be executed: They are bills that throw red meat to the rabid nuts in the base and those bills are introduced with the full knowledge of everyone on the Hill that they are dead the moment they are introduced.
Calm down, everyone.
Bullshit. Calm down, people.
Senate bill 2099 does not exist. Go to Thomas.gov and search for it in the 111th Congress, if you wish. S. 2099 was indeed a gun control bill, but it was introduced 9 years ago in the 106th Congress and it died a very quick death. The "S. 2099" stuff is a complete fraud.
At least the panicky e-mails about H.R. 45 refer to a real bill, but that bill is as dead as Tom DeLay's political career. H.R. 45 has no co-sponsors. It was referred to the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security on February 9th and there it languishes. A general rule is that a bill without co-sponsors, especially if it deals with a hot-button topic, is dead the moment it is introduced. Rep. Bobby Rush introduced it, in all probability, to curry favor with the gun control nuts in his district (and to use it as a way to get donations out of them).
It is a very old game. The Republicans do the same thing when they introduce bills for banning abortion or mandating that same-sex couples be executed: They are bills that throw red meat to the rabid nuts in the base and those bills are introduced with the full knowledge of everyone on the Hill that they are dead the moment they are introduced.
Calm down, everyone.
It's Probably Time to Go
Either Hamid Karzai would leave Afghanistan or we should.
We are now backing an illegitimate government which is ineptly fighting off an insurgency. That is a prescription for disaster. Either Karzai should go or we should.
Beyond, that, here is something of interest. The New York Times scrubbed a very devastating quotation from Peter Galbraith which appeared in its earlier stories, in which he said in an interview: “I simply decided I could not be complicit in the cover up of fraud.” and replaced it with a quotation from the letter: “Given our mandate to support ‘free, fair and transparent’ elections, I felt U.N.A.M.A. could not overlook the fraud without compromising our neutrality and becoming complicit in a cover-up.” The first quotation was, to my mind, far more devastating and to the point. But you wouldn't know shit about it if it were not for other blogs which read the story last night and referenced it.
The United Nations fired its No. 2 official in Afghanistan on Wednesday after the diplomat, Peter W. Galbraith, wrote a scathing letter accusing the head of the mission here of concealing election fraud that benefited the campaign of the incumbent president, Hamid Karzai. ... Mr. Galbraith wrote that United Nations field staff members collected data showing a “minuscule” turnout in southern provinces that somehow would report large numbers of votes for Mr. Karzai. But once it became clear that the data “would be deeply disturbing to President Karzai,” he said, Mr. Eide “ordered the staff not to share the data with anyone.” ...It is a common failing of politicians to conflate what is best for their own skins with what is best for their governments, which is why Mayor Bloomberg of New York had the term limits law repealed so he could run for a third term and why his predecessor tried to cancel (or delay) an election so he could stay in office longer. Karzai blatantly stole the election, there is no disputing that fact.
We are now backing an illegitimate government which is ineptly fighting off an insurgency. That is a prescription for disaster. Either Karzai should go or we should.
Beyond, that, here is something of interest. The New York Times scrubbed a very devastating quotation from Peter Galbraith which appeared in its earlier stories, in which he said in an interview: “I simply decided I could not be complicit in the cover up of fraud.” and replaced it with a quotation from the letter: “Given our mandate to support ‘free, fair and transparent’ elections, I felt U.N.A.M.A. could not overlook the fraud without compromising our neutrality and becoming complicit in a cover-up.” The first quotation was, to my mind, far more devastating and to the point. But you wouldn't know shit about it if it were not for other blogs which read the story last night and referenced it.
Can't Pay Your Medical Bills?
Stephen Colbert suggests sending your unpaid medical bills to Sen. Max Baucus, since he has been given $3.2 million from the health insurance companies.
(Comedy Central, can you please fix your HTML code?)
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Send Your Medical Bills to Max Baucus | ||||
| ||||
(Comedy Central, can you please fix your HTML code?)
Fraud
How the Bush White House exploited the death of Pat Tillman for political gain. They would have gotten away with it but for his family, which were as strong-willed as Tillman was.
Our current "savior for Afghanistan", General McChrystal, has his fingerprints all over the exploitation of Tillman's death.
Our current "savior for Afghanistan", General McChrystal, has his fingerprints all over the exploitation of Tillman's death.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Jon Krakauer | ||||
| ||||
Switching to Geico and Losing Money
According to Jon Stewart, that is the kind of people the Democrats in Congress are. The Republicans are countering the arguments of Democrats with smoke and bullshit and, as Stewart points out, the Democrats are buying it.
Goddamn their eyes, I hate the Democrats. They are among the most incompetent and inept group of fucks ever assembled. If the Senate Democrats were selling computerized cars, they would be trying to persuade everyone to buy Yugos running Windows Vista. If the GOP had sixty senators and a majority in the House, the GOP would be passing bills to repeal the minimum wage, child labor laws, to permit the FBI to summarily execute people and they would be passing it over President Obama's veto, because there would be enough spineless Democrats going along with them.
(Of course, I despise the GOP, so don't be counting on me to vote for them.)
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Democratic Super Majority | ||||
| ||||
Goddamn their eyes, I hate the Democrats. They are among the most incompetent and inept group of fucks ever assembled. If the Senate Democrats were selling computerized cars, they would be trying to persuade everyone to buy Yugos running Windows Vista. If the GOP had sixty senators and a majority in the House, the GOP would be passing bills to repeal the minimum wage, child labor laws, to permit the FBI to summarily execute people and they would be passing it over President Obama's veto, because there would be enough spineless Democrats going along with them.
(Of course, I despise the GOP, so don't be counting on me to vote for them.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
