You go to the voting booth with the Constitution you’ve got…

by lestro

So we all know one of the candidates wasn’t born in the US, right?

It’s true, sometimes the email chains are real! John McCain was not born in the United States.

McCain’s dad was a Navy man (both McCain’s father and grandfather were admirals) and McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone while his father was stationed there in 1936.

This is only interesting because the US Constitution specifically states that the President must be a natural born citizen. It’s one of three requirements. The others, of course, are a minimum age of 35 and having lived in the US for 14 years. McCain easily meets the last two.

However, his citizenship is unquestioned, his natural born status is something that has been discussed, to the point that earlier this year the House and Senate both passed a bill stating his eligibility to run for President, based on the idea that the founders wouldn’t want to deny the Presidency to someone because their parents were in the military. Hard to disagree with.

But according to a new, in-depth look at the issue, it’s not enough:

The analysis, by Prof. Gabriel J. Chin, focused on a 1937 law that has been largely overlooked in the debate over Mr. McCain’s eligibility to be president.

The law conferred citizenship on children of American parents born in the Canal Zone after 1904, and it made John McCain a citizen just before his first birthday. But the law came too late, Professor Chin argued, to make Mr. McCain a natural-born citizen.

Interesting. But surely, the Canal Zone, the 10-mile strip of land that surrounds the Panama Canal, which was controlled by the US from 1903 to 1979 counts as the US, right? I mean, it was US territory at the time, right?

A series of early-20th-century decisions known as the Insular Cases, he wrote, ruled that unincorporated territories acquired by the United States were not part of the nation for constitutional purposes. The Insular Cases did not directly address the Canal Zone. But the zone was generally considered an unincorporated territory before it was returned to Panama in 1999, and some people born in the Canal Zone when it was under American jurisdiction have been deported from the United States or convicted of being here illegally.

Oh come on, surely the people of the time considered it part of the States, right?

Kid delivers LSD-laced cookies to cops. Actually, nevermind, the cops were just trippin’

by twit

When I first saw the article about the teenager accused of going to several police stations in Texas and delivering batches of cookies that smelled like pot but were actually laced with LSD, I figured it was another illustration for the “children left behind” files, the part of the chronicle where representatives from the upcoming generation are doing things that sound completely insane yet also so jaw-droppingly stupid.

But now it turns out that the allegations were actually the product of overactive imaginations of law enforcement officials (and their preliminary drug tests), and the charges have been dropped.  What we actually have here is an episode of the “romper room,”  featuring children of all ages left far, far behind:

On July 8, 2008, the Associated Press first reported:

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A teenager is suspected of delivering baskets of drug-laced treats to about a dozen police departments in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to police who charged him Tuesday with LSD possession. At least three officers have gotten sick.

The 18-year-old man was arrested after taking cookies to the Lake Worth police station, said Brett McGuire, the suburb’s police chief. Officers there had been tipped off that someone was falsely claiming to deliver treats on behalf of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

“Our officers took a good whiff and thought they smelled like marijuana,” McGuire said, adding that preliminary tests instead detected traces of LSD.

Christian Phillips was taken into custody and later charged with possession of the powerful hallucinogen, although the charge may be changed, McGuire said.

The suspect denied trying to contaminate the goodies or harm anyone and said one of his friends might have been smoking pot while Phillips was baking, McGuire said.

The suspect is not affiliated with MADD, the chief said.

which is what I had cut and pasted after I first read the story. Much of this clip has been scrubbed from the link where the article first appeared.

Oh what fun it is to fly

by twit

Thank you Consumerist:

[T]he EMD Safety Bracelet from Lamperd Less Lethal is designed to make flying a fun experience once again. Just check out everything it can do:

Take the place of an airline boarding pass.

Contain personal information about the traveler.

Be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage.

Shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes.

That made my eye twitch. and then on April 18, 2008, Wired reports:

This is the worst air travel security idea I’ve heard of in a long time.

A Canadian company called Lamperd Less Lethal is promoting the EMD Safety Bracelet. It’s equipped with electro muscular disruption technology, which effectively short-circuits the central nervous system. Zap someone and they’ll be completely immobile for several minutes.

The technology isn’t new — cops and security guards have been using it for years in tasers. What’s new is the marketing approach. Lamperd is hawking the EMD bracelet as the ideal tool for fighting terrorists intent on taking over an airplane.

And they’re doing so with a blatantly exploitive promotional video.

Jesse Helms “shocked” to arrive in Hell

by lestro

LAKE OF FIRE, HELL - Former United States Senator Jesse Helms seemed surprised to wake up in Hell this morning, exclaiming “but I’m white!” as minions of Beelzebub poked and prodded the conservative Southern senator.

The tormenting of his soul is reportedly due to the multitude of hateful laws he supported, as well as the hypocrisies within his own religious beliefs for which Helms was famously known.

Helms’s shock is reported to have worn off quickly after he was reunited with fellow Southern racist Strom Thurmond.

According to Satan, the arrival of Helms has been expected, as he traded his soul for his Senate seat decades ago.

“Do you really think a jackass bigot like Jesse could have been elected that many times without the help of the forces of darkness?” the devil quipped. “Cracka, please.”

We hold these truths to be self-evident

by lestro

Today is July 4, Independence Day.

Every year, I make sure to take 15 minutes out of my barbeque/fireworks/beer time to make sure I read the Declaration of Independence.

It’s a good reminder of who we are supposed to be and what we are supposed to believe in about this country.

Unlike the Constitution, which is a working document designed to create and maintain a government that would protect the rights of its people, the Declaration is a statement of Ideals.

It is a philosophical treatise on human rights and government, as well as a point-by-point breakdown of exactly why and how King George was violating those rights.

And I love the simplicity of it: “Hey King George, here’s what we believe and here’s why you’re a jerk. Now piss off, we can take it from here. Love, Thomas Jefferson, et al.”

The very idea that governments draw their power from the consent of the governed and that we elect our leaders to represent us in a larger government was groundbreaking at the time.

America is less a country and more of an idea. We are a nation based not on the divine right of some inbred blueblood (except for the past two elections, of course), but a simple - yet breathtakingly groundbreaking - philosophy. The Declaration is the embodiment of that philosophy.

Written by Jefferson, parts of the declaration are very lyrical, soaring statements on all men being created equal and having the right (among others) to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, while others sections detail nearly 30 specific grievances and reasons for going it on our own. A nation founded on the pursuit of happiness (even if by “all men” he meant “all white, land-owning men”) is and was a truly amazing idea.

What’s even more important is the idea that it is not governments that bestow these rights, that these rights are “unalienable” and bestowed by the Creator. Governments exist simply to “secure these rights.” That is still a pretty radical idea now, let alone in the time of the Divine Right of Kings.

It’s not easy either. We’ve spent the 232 years since then trying to figure out exactly how to live up to such lofty ideals. Well, 225 years anyway. The last seven have been a pretty good exercise in deconstruction of these ideals.

But if we ever have questions about what we are supposed to stand for and why, we need to simply check our founding philosophical document. The philosophy of the nation is right there in the first paragraph.

The Declaration, however, not only separated us from Mother England, but also leaves the door open for future revolutions by laying out the reasons that governments can be overturned: whenever a government fails to secure our rights or ceases to draw its power from the consent of the governed, it is not only our right to overthrow them, but our “duty.”

That’s pretty punk rock when you get right down to it.

So while we all take time today to celebrate our national birthday and pursue our own happiness, be it a barbeque, fireworks or parades, take a few minutes and re-read the Declaration. It’s a quick, inspiring read of just more than 1300 words. Besides, we should all remind ourselves every now and again exactly what we’re doing over here, just to be sure we haven’t lost our way.

Happy 4th.

The FDA would like you to die a slow, painful death

by twit

Via the Consumerist on July 3, 2008, there is a database from the Environmental Working Group, a watchdog organization that lets you search for your brand of sunblock and review the findings of scientific studies that detail the cancer-causing, reproductive organ-damaging, endocrine system-disrupting chemicals that places like Japan have banned and regulated, but the FDA has done nothing about.

The baby care section is terrifying. Skin care is even worse. Think you’re doing alright by getting that hypoallergenic makeup? Think again!

An advanced search of the site can be conducted here. The organic products listing is a lot of fun, if you like freaking out about suddenly realizing that ‘organic’ is absolutely no guarantee that a product is anywhere close to being considered by scientists to be safe for human use.

Vermont Law School pretends to fight for equality

by twit

How embarrassing. For an institution with the motto “law for the community and the world,” one has to wonder why they are engaging in self-mutilation that flies in the face of the most deeply held principles of the school.

Vermont Law School has long opposed the “don’t ask don’t tell” military policy, which is a great thing. They joined several schools in a lawsuit that went up to the United States Supreme Court, challenging the loss of federal funding that followed the refusal to permit military recruiters on campus. And they lost in a unanimous decision by the Court.

The response by Vermont Law School is to continue to bar the military recruiters on campus. Which means, according to the New York Times on June 30, 2008, that the school will not receive an estimated $300,000 to $500,000 in federal dollars each year that the ban continues. The new dean expresses how proud he is to “speak truth to power,” and how great it is to sacrifice such an enormous amount of money for such a tiny school.

I suppose I should send my Vermont Law School diploma back in protest, because I don’t want to display it anywhere if it means being associated with backward and destructive political action. If that school taught me anything, it was to speak out against foolish policies that ultimately hinder the fight for equality.

Dow AgroSciences suggests we avoid eating the deformed food

by twit

From the Guardian on June 29, 2008:

The Dow website says: ‘As a general rule, we suggest damaged produce (however this is caused) should not be consumed.’

This is an example photo of a deformed tomato plant, via the Guardian:

Example of unhealthy tomato leaves curling inwards, affected by contaminated manure. Photograph: Katherine Rose

Dow AgroSciences would prefer that we avoid eating deformed food, especially if their pesticide got into the manure used to fertilize the garden…

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has been inundated with calls from concerned gardeners who have seen potatoes, beans, peas, carrots and salad vegetables wither or become grossly deformed.

The society admitted that it had no idea of the extent of the problem, but said it appeared ’significant’.

monkeys in the middle

by twit

When the twit looks at how monkey imagery is tossed around in a rollicking sea of interpretation and meaning, the poor monkey seems very much like a kid at the center of a hotly-contested custody battle.

Monkeys haven’t done anything to anybody. Hollywood confirms that Apes will be a problem for humans, but monkeys are alright. Nevertheless, a monkey can be as offensive as a noose, depending on the context.

Monkey shirts, Monkey dolls, and now we have a Monkey God, hallelujah.

From the Times of India on June 24, 2008:

The idol is being presented to Obama as he is reported to be a Lord Hanuman devotee and carries with him a locket of the monkey god along with other good luck charms.

The twit very much wants one of these Obama charm bracelets…

The cost of free advertising

by twit

So the Associated Press had a bit of a mental misfire the other day and freaked out at the Drudge Retort…

Copyright, fair use and the freedom of speech, nobody seems to quite know how to define it, but people tend to think they know it when they see it… at least according to the New York Times on June 16, 2008:

The Associated Press, one of the nation’s largest news organizations, said that it will, for the first time, attempt to define clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt without infringing on The A.P.’s copyright.

… Last week, The A.P. took an unusually strict position against quotation of its work, sending a letter to the Drudge Retort asking it to remove seven items that contained quotations from A.P. articles ranging from 39 to 79 words.

On Saturday, The A.P. retreated.

in the meantime, here’s a video about “fair use” and copyright law in general:

Comedy Porn

by twit

This guy is great. The LA Times describes him as:

[Alex] Kozinski, who was named chief judge of the 9th Circuit last year, is considered a judicial conservative on most issues. He was appointed to the federal bench by then-President Ronald Reagan in 1985. He has a national reputation for a brilliant legal mind and has developed a reputation as a champion of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and expression.

So when his online porn stash becomes public in the midst of an obscenity trial that he is presiding over, does he meekly retreat from the appearance of impropriety? Not a chance. Instead he calls for an investigation, inviting an ethics panel to look over his collection. From the Associated Press on June 12, 2008:

The criminal prosecution of a hard-core pornographer turned into a personal trial for the presiding judge, who called for an investigation Thursday into his own conduct over lewd photos and videos stored on his family’s publicly accessible Web site.

Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, asked an ethics panel of the court to initiate proceedings after the disclosure about his trove of sexually explicit material.

“I will cooperate fully in any investigation,” Kozinski said in a statement.

The Moral High Ground doesn’t live here anymore

by lestro

Today’s NY Times contains a story titled “A Year Under Hamas Alters Life in Gaza” about how things have changed in the Gaza strip since Hamas, the terrorist group, took over control of the territory from Fatah, a former terrorist group, by shooting their opponents in the knees and tossing them off buildings.

The US and Israel reacted immediately, of course, attempting to isolate the people and force them to turn on the new leaders by cutting them off from the world.

But, as anyone who has ever read “Animal Farm” knows, isolation only makes it easier for the leaders to control the situation, as now they control the flow of information as well as the means of government, becoming providers for the people. Especially now that goods like food and fuel are scarce and Hamas controls everything being smuggled into the country (which is everything) through tunnels from Egypt.

And that taxes it, of course. It’s like the mob back in the prohibition days, controlling every aspect of business because of a failed policy on the part of the controlling authority (in this case, the US and Israel).

So not surprisingly, life isn’t good. The Israel and American blockade surely doesn’t add to the quality of life, but inside the fences, the religious fundamentalists get to rule over the territory like their own, private West Texas compound.

the twit reads the news

by twit

whoops: Those levees they had thought would hold the Des Moines river back have breached. Total evacuation has been ordered and is well underway in affected areas due to the coordinated efforts of the earlier voluntary evacuations and the police going door-to-door before dawn to wake and assist the people still there. The BBC has video from Cedar Rapids.

damn: Tim Russert is dead. Long live Tim Russert:

What we hope to do in this campaign is recognize there are big differences on big issues between John McCain and Barack Obama – the war in Iraq, Iran, Social Security, taxes. You don’t need to get into this other stuff. If it does surface, then I think the mainstream media has an obligation not to just instinctively put it out there without vetting it.

wow: Protests in Tibet continue, including a report about a monk using a sword to defend himself from officials attempting his arrest and then managing to escape into the mountains before 200 Chinese officers arrived.

welcome to the future

by twit

USA Today reports on June 6, 2008:

Body-scanning machines that show images of people underneath their clothing are being installed in 10 of the nation’s busiest airports in one of the biggest public uses of security devices that reveal intimate body parts.

and according to the TSA:

“It’s the wave of the future,” said James Schear, the TSA security director at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, where two body scanners are in use at one checkpoint.

this is how it works:

The scanners bounce harmless “millimeter waves” off passengers who are selected to stand inside a portal with arms raised after clearing the metal detector.

A TSA screener in a nearby room views the black-and-white image and looks for objects on a screen that are shaded differently from the body.

Finding a suspicious object, a screener radios a colleague at the checkpoint to search the passenger.

and for entertainment purposes, the TSA explains what ‘protecting privacy’ means:

The TSA says it protects privacy by blurring passengers’ faces and deleting images right after viewing. Yet the images are detailed, clearly showing a person’s gender. “You can actually see the sweat on someone’s back,” Schear said.

Endangered Species circa 2008

by twit

The BBC reports that “uncontacted” tribes of people who aim bows and arrows at passing aircraft are in danger of having their way of life wiped out.

Cyber G.ho.st. breaks down real world walls

by lestro

According to the New York Times, there is a team of Palestinian and Israeli coders who are working together on creating a new web-based personal computer that will allow people to log in to their own virtual harddrives from any internet connection.

Despite the differences between their people and the walls put up to stop them, the programmers are working toward a common vision and goal.

They trade ideas through a video hookup that connects the West Bank office with one in Israel in the first joint technology venture of its kind between Israelis and Palestinians.

“Start with the optimistic parts, Mustafa,” Gilad Parann-Nissany, an Israeli who is vice president for research and development, jokes with a Palestinian colleague who is giving a progress report. Both conference rooms break into laughter.

The goal of G.ho.st is not as lofty as peace, although its founders and employees do hope to encourage it. Instead G.ho.st wants to give users a free, Web-based virtual computer that lets them access their desktop and files from any computer with an Internet connection. G.ho.st, pronounced “ghost,” is short for Global Hosted Operating System.

“Ghosts go through walls,” said Zvi Schreiber, the company’s British-born Israeli chief executive, by way of explanation…

Burma on fire

by twit

Another day, another outrage, another reason for war.

From the BBC on May 30, 2008, there are reports from Myanmar indicating:

Burma’s military government had begun to evict homeless families from some government-run emergency camps.

It has given them bamboo poles and tarpaulins and told them to go and rebuild their lives, say reports.

An estimated 2.4m people remain homeless and hungry following Cyclone Nargis, which struck on 2 May.

Florida, you are the weakest link

by twit

Florida has been a distinct thorn in this country’s side since the year 2000, so the twit is beginning to think that maybe it is time to just let the state go once and for all. Perhaps we could vote on it…

From the Sun-Sentinel on May 25, 2008:

[Port St. Lucie Department spokeswoman Michelle] Steele said the boy had been sent to the principal’s office because of disciplinary issues. When he returned, [the teacher] made him go to the front of the room as a form of punishment, she said.

… After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn’t like about Barton’s 5-year-old son, Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher Wendy Portillo said they were going to take a vote, Barton said.

By a 14 to 2 margin, the students voted Alex — who is in the process of being diagnosed with autism — out of the class.

Soldiers are not the only ones dying for your freedom

by lestro

Today is Memorial Day. Originally started as Decoration Day following the Civil War and expanded into the summer-starting three day weekend of flag-waving, barbeques, parades and blockbuster movies, each of us should make sure we take time today to reflect on the meaning of the holiday.

Especially when so many Americans are currently off fighting and dying in stupid wars for leaders who have no way out.

But soldiers, sailors and Marines and not the only people out there in the war zone every day, fighting for your freedom. Each day, journalists from around the world also pull on their flack jackets and head out to the front lines, armed with only a notebook or a camera.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, so far this year, 10 journalists have been killed on duty. They join 65 killed in 2007.

Dozens more remain missing.

In Iraq, two journalists have been killed so far this year, bringing the total number of journalists killed in this conflict to 127. Both deaths this year were Iraqi reporters, highlighting again the danger and power of information in a country wracked by war.

There is no job more important to freedom and liberty than the simple journalist. The founding fathers knew it too, which is why it is the only non-governmental job protected by the Constitution.

Ghosts of Iraq

by twit

An insightful comment on a previous post raised an important point about the mental health effects of combat stress, and it reminded me of a recent news story that goes far beyond the cold statistics of the suicide rates for our war veterans:

From the Fort Mill Times on May 25, 2008:

Until the day he died, Sgt. Brian Rand believed he was being haunted by the ghost of the Iraqi man he killed.

The ghost choked Rand while he slept in his bunk, forcing him to wake up gasping for air and clawing at his throat.

He whispered that Rand was a vampire and looked on as the soldier stabbed another member of Fort Campbell’s 96th Aviation Support Battalion in the neck with a fork in the mess hall.

Eventually, the ghost told Rand he needed to kill himself.

Live from Philadelphia

by twit

MSNBC reports: “A half-dozen police officers kicked and beat three men pulled from a car during a traffic stop as a TV helicopter taped the confrontation.”

Note to MSNBC: learn how to count, then come back and tell me how many cops appear in the video…

… “On the surface it certainly does not look good in terms of the amount of force that was used,” Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said.

“But we don’t want to rush to judgment.”

so don’t rush to judgment, here’s the video and more from MyFox Philadelphia:

Video: Chase Ends Violently (Viewer Discretion Advised)
Slideshow: Images Of Confrontation
Video: Suspects Taken In Custody
Video: Police Statement About Shooting

the sound of every criminal defense attorney cringing at once

by twit

sounds something like this:

(CBS) Many of the men in the polygamist sect in Eldorado, Texas didn’t know it is illegal to marry someone under 18, one of them tells Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez in an exclusive interview.

… Asked by Rodriguez if he was saying older men don’t marry adolescent girls in the compound, Edson replied, “I didn’t say that at all, but I think that people have a false concept of what our religion is all about. To say that they’re sexually abused and that people here are — they haven’t found anything to my knowledge that proves that.

… But I think that, overall, they look at us as if we’re immoral people and, in our own makeup, that is the very most important part of our religion, is to be morally clean. I have a hard time standing here being a criminal, when I had no idea that I’m a criminal.

(Videos of the interview can be seen here)

emphasis and cringe added. ‘Ignorance of the law is no excuse‘ is just a starting point for the kind of conniptions this might produce. It has been a minute since I checked, but I have a dim recollection that once you say goodbye to your fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination, it is gone for good…

Look, the Red Army is converting

by loadz

Okay, I’m confused. Is this a group of Tibetan monks turning in their robes and joining the Red Army? Or Red Army soldiers joining the ranks of Buddhism?

A more cynical person might perhaps suspect that the Chinese are justifying their use of force by planting imposter monk agent provocateurs in Tibetan protest crowds. But really, what government would do that?

I mean, it’s dishonest. And if we can’t trust the Chinese or Canadians, who can we trust.

Breaking the Great Firewall of China

by twit

via Wikileaks:

In the last week Wikileaks has released over 150 censored photos and videos of the Tibet uprising and has called on bloggers around the world to help drive the footage through the Chinese internet censorship regime — the so called “Great Firewall of China”

… Wikileaks has also placed the collection in two easy to use archives together with a HTML index page so they may be easily copied, placed on websites, cd’s, emailed across the internet as attachments and uploaded to peer to peer networks.

Censored Tibet March 2008 protest photos (120 photos on a single page)

leak:tibet-protest-photos.zip (120 photo archive)

Censored Tibet March 2008 protest videos - display (35 flash videos)

Censored Tibet March 2008 protest videos - FLV format (Flash archive)

Censored Tibet March 2008 protest videos - AVI format (AVI/mpeg4)

raw milk must make people stupid

by twit

Thank you, Associated Press, this about made my head explode:

“Raw milk is like a magic food for children,” said Sally Fallon, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates consumption of whole, natural foods.

because I don’t care if it has “health benefits” if it also is a serious health risk. Especially to kids.

More than 1,000 people, including two who died, got sick from raw milk or cheese made from raw milk from 1998 to 2005, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

even the FDA has got this one spelled out pretty clearly, although it is basic fucking germ theory, so it isn’t exactly asking a whole hell of a lot.

who needs to search for an appropriate metaphor when our tax dollars have written that giving a kid raw milk is like giving a kid a loaded gun with a bullet loaded at random:

Tibet Update: Chinese police open fire on protesters

by twit

On April 4, 2008, the Associated Press describes reports of recent protests, including that “police opened fire on hundreds of Buddhist monks and lay people who had marched on local government offices.” The Chinese media agency Xinhua reports:

… no mention of deaths or injuries among protesters, but said a “riot” had flared up Thursday night outside government offices in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture high in the mountains in Sichuan province along the border with Tibet.

further details are offered by the Associated Press:

… the chief monk, Lobsang Jamyang, refused to allow a government team to enter on Wednesday, but they returned Thursday with a force of about 3,000 paramilitary troops. The two monks, Geshi Sonam Tenzing and Tsultrim Phuntsog, were detained after photos of the Dalai Lama were found among their belongings.

Soon afterward, the monastery’s 370 monks marched on local government headquarters to demand their release, joined by about 400 lay people, Whitticase said. The group left after being told the two monks would be freed at 8 p.m., but returned after officials reneged. Along the way, they were confronted by troops at a road block, who opened fire on the crowd, Whitticase said.

The BBC has more:

Tibetan exile groups say Chinese security forces killed dozens of protesters. Beijing says about 19 people were killed in rioting.

… The latest Xinhua report states that a government official was “attacked and seriously wounded” in the Donggu township at about 2000 (1200 GMT) on Thursday.

“Local officials exercised restraint during the riot and repeatedly told the rioters to abide by the law,” Xinhua quoted an official with the prefectural government as saying.

“Police were forced to fire warning shots and put down the violence,” the official added.

Alas! Poor Justice, I knew her well

by lestro

The politicization of the Department of Justice has really been the ugliest thing this administration has done. And these fuckers have been up to no good since Day One.

But the literal corruption of Justice really is the most despicable.

Maybe it is because the president and his cronies have been treating the Justice Department like their own lawyers and legal loophole finders and torture apologists for years, but it’s fairly obvious something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Which is why we can’t even let this little “restructuring” effort go without it being fully checked out.

Asked about the recent dismantling of a high-profile unit in the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles that specialized in public corruption cases, an office spokesman provided what some saw as a curious justification:

Eliminating the public integrity and environmental crimes section, spokesman Thom Mrozek said, would actually enhance the effort to prosecute such cases.

The Bush Administration going after people that look at public corruption and environmental crimes? Check.

Bizarre doublespeak explanation? Check.

Red Flag.

The Middle Way through Tibet

by twit

There won’t be a massive boycott of the Beijing Olympics. Whether individual athletes and other participants will boycott remains to be seen.

The Dalai Lama has suggested a “middle way” through the crisis in Tibet. The Associated Press reports on March 24, 2008:

“DHARMSALA, India (AP) - Nearly six decades of struggle against the might of China has taught the Tibetans one thing: Ask the world for little, expect less.

… They know few countries have the appetite to cross China, particularly at a time the world is counting on the emerging superpower to keep the global economy ticking as the United States appears headed into a recession.

… From the exiled Tibetan leaders, there were no calls for sanctions, like those imposed when Myanmar suppressed pro-democracy protests last year, or even a boycott of this summer’s Beijing Olympics.

It’s an approach that reflects the pragmatism of the Dalai Lama, who has long sought an accommodation based on his “Middle Way” dialogue with Beijing aimed at autonomy for Tibetans under Chinese rule.

Instead, the Tibetans appealed for international pressure on China to act with restraint, to open the area to international investigators and the media and for organizations like the International Red Cross to be allowed in to ensure wounded Tibetan protesters get treatment.

“Specific things are very difficult. No one is going to send in a peacekeeping force,” said Taklha.

The Tibetans have, however, won the moral support of many nations.

… Some argue that only international pressure has stopped China from completely crushing the Tibetans long ago.”