Day Two: Guantanamo Redux

Via Sullivan's blog, Greenwald again nails it.
My only quibble (Word Challange!) is the use of the word "unexpected.
Heh.

Barack Obama will have spent his first several days in office issuing a series of executive orders which, some quibbling and important caveats aside, meet or actually exceed even the most optimistic expectations of civil libertarians -- everything from ordering the closing of Guantanamo to suspending military commissions to compelling CIA interrogators to adhere to the Army Field Manual to banning CIA "black sites" and, perhaps most encouragingly (in my view): severely restricting his own power and the power of former Presidents to withhold documents on the basis of secrecy, which has been the prime corrosive agent of the Bush era. As a result, establishment and right-wing figures who have been assuring everyone that Obama would scorn "the Left" (meaning: those who believe in Constitutional safeguards) and would continue most of Bush's "counter-Terrorism" policies are growing increasingly nervous about this flurry of unexpected activity.

And, trust but verify. Who said that?

: Writing on his new Washington Post blog, Greg Sargent highlights the types of vital issues that are unresolved by these Executive Orders and which have the potential to undermine, it not entirely subvert, the progress that Obama made this week. That's why ongoing vigilance, rather than complacency, is so crucial.

The Best Inuaguration Collection

according to Taplin.

For Wonks Only

Krugman tells you. Stay away from most other sources on this subject.

As I’ve already pointed out,the prospect of a Keynesian stimulus is having a weird effect on conservative economists, as first-rate economists keep making truly boneheaded arguments against the effort.

The latest entry: Robert Barro argues that the multiplier on government spending is low because real GDP during World War II rose by less than military spending.

It' s Only Gonna Get Tougher

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01212009/news/politics/caroline_kennedy_ends_senate_seat_bid_151234.htm

Caroline: Not This Time

she's out of the running, citing Uncle Ted's health, according to some. Maybe Cuomo?
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01212009/news/politics/caroline_kennedy_ends_senate_seat_bid_151234.htm

Jill!!!

All about that red dress here.

Headline O' Teh Day

Former French President Chirac hospitalised after mauling by his clinically depressed poodle

Shortymac would never do that.

Headline O' Teh Day

Former French President Chirac hospitalised after mauling by his clinically depressed poodle

Shortymac would never do that.

Are We Human

or are we dancer? Always, these bipolar questions. Who set that agenda?

Obama: Words for How We Feel Now from Emily Troutman on Vimeo.

The Best Front Page

and perhaps, the last inaugural front page.

Today marks a beginning for America – and an end for newspapers.

Four years from now, at the next inauguration, there will be fewer front pages to look at – if there are any pages to look at, at all.

So we should take a moment to savor this page and all the others published today, then get back to work and find a way to monetize the journalism that supports our democracy – that's what Obama would do if he were a journalist.

Cheese On Chinese Food

Comedy Central promises to do the daily reality check. I'm so grateful, 'cuz I clearly don't have it in me.
(Okay, a lot of stuff is changing at Blogger, and I don't mean in a good way. There's a lot of stuff I can't embed and/or copy anymore. Here's the link
.
Oh Hell, watch the whole thing and bookmark The Daily Show, because if we cant' laugh at ourselves, we are doomed.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=216535

Day One: Guantanamo

From Glenn Greenwald via Andrew Sullivan:

It appears that the Guantanamo judges will be receptive to the Obama administration's request to stay these commissions, as another military judge -- this one overseeing the proceedings against five detainees accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- just ordered the commissions stayed for 120 days, as Obama ordered his prosecutors to request. And the Swiss Government today announced that it will agree to accept released Guantanamo detainees if that helps close the camp, which Switzerland, like most of the civilized world, considers a blight on Western justice and an ongoing violation of international law. Those are fairly rapid (and encouraging) events for the first 24 hours.

I know you really don't want to know about this. I don't either. But it is Day One, so somebody thinks it's important.

In December, 2003, when he was (at most) 18 years old, Jawad -- according to Guantanamo prison logs -- attempted to kill himself. In 2004, he was subjected to the so-called "frequent flier" program, where, in a two-week period alone, he was moved to a new cell 112 times -- an average of every 3 hours, in order to ensure he was sleep deprived and disoriented. Over the six years at Guantanamo, Jawad was repeatedly subjected to extreme cold, bright lights, and various stress positions. He was often kept in solitary confinement or in "linguistic confinement," isolated from anyone who spoke his only language (Pashto). As recently as May of 2008, while Jawad was at Guantanamo, he was beaten so badly by guards that, weeks later, he still had extreme bruises on his arms, knees, shoulders, forehead and ribs.

This is documented, folks, by his original prosecutor, who resigned from the case in protest. Greenwald has the links. You cannot say, as the Germans did , that you didn't know.

Another Inaugural Gem

You will have to go to Wiki to check, I'm not going to do that.

Some trivia from the new WH website: (3+ / 0-)

Recommended by:

wbr, sherlyle, dotalbon

In 1829, a horde of 20,000 Inaugural callers forced President Andrew Jackson to flee to the safety of a hotel while, on the lawn, aides filled washtubs with orange juice and whiskey to lure the mob out of the mud-tracked White House.

Wow

Save this for your children. It's iconic.

Kos Commenter

says the people with "Arrest Bush" signs along Penn Ave got a permit to be in front of the FBI building. I love America, I really do. I always have.

Everybody Liked This, It Seems

so worth repeating:
Reverend Joseph Lowery-Inaugural Benediction

We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around. When yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen

These Guys!!

(I mean that in the generic sense) rushed over to the White House while he was still speaking, because there was a lot to (un)do.

One of President Barack Obama's first acts is to order federal agencies to halt all pending regulations until his administration can review them.

The order went out Tuesday afternoon, shortly after Obama was inaugurated president, in a memorandum signed by new White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. The notice of the action was contained in the first press release sent out by Obama's White House, and it came from deputy press secretary Bill Burton.
The waning days of former President Bush's administration featured much debate over what rules and regulations he would seek to enact before he left office.

The Day

in 100 seconds. TPM does this every day now.

The Shredders

I own two.

 

 

The best way to get off the couch is to climb up on the table and then slide off. 

The Speech

in tough times, we the people remained faithful...
in the midst of crisis is well understood, economy badly weakened, ... collective failure to make hard choices...the way we use energy...confidence...fear the next generation must lower its sights...not easy, but
"they will be met" hope over fear, unity of purpose, end to petty grievances and worn out dogmas,
remain a young nation, set asidde childish things, carry forward....god given promise that all are equal...
greatness never a gift, must be earned,
risk takers, doers, makers of things.
long rugged past
for us they toiled in sweatshops
etc.
(I think, for them, really, then for us)
America bigger than the sum of our ambitions
starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin the work of remaking America
new jobs, science to its rightful place, environment, education, "all this we can do, all this we will do"
? scale of ambigions, say system canno tolerate such plans
fail to understnd that the ground has shifted beneath them
---not is govt too big or too small, but does it work?
---light of day
(saw Ray Nagin out there)
Malia is focussing her camera)
common good
common good
common good
rejext as false the choice between our safety and ideals
---will not give the ideals up for expediency's sake---
we are ready to lead once more---
--earlier generations faceed down fascism and communism---
--security emanates form the justice of our cause--
--leave Iraq to its people, lessen nuclear threat, roll back spector of declining climate
---we will defeat you
---our patchwork heritage is astrength, not a weakness
--people will judge you on what you can build, not what you can destroy
---we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering of others
---spirit of service, willingness to find something greater than themselves
--ultimately the faith and determination of the people
---values--honesty and hard work, loyalty and patriotism--these things are old, these things are true, return to truths, new era of responsibility,
---the price and the promise of citizenship
----
why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served in a local restaurant may stand before you and take this most sacred oath----


---quotes Washington--when we were tested we refused to let this journey end---thank you and god bless the us of america

Rick Warren

"History is your story"
what the hell does that mean, slaughter is the story of God?
Guy's gonna go down. I smell it.
Not really a compelling speaker, I wonder how he keeps the congregation together.
Forgive us, for failing to treat everyone with respect. Hmm. Civility in our attitudes, even when we differ.
He's about 75 pound overweight, and has a very small voice.
Kept it clean, kept it bland.
Aretha!!!
Fabulous hat.
So, Stevens administers the oath to Biden.
The John Williams composition, Perleman, yo=yo, etc. No one knows what it will sound like, they tell me.
A Jewish white man, an Asian American, a black American and a white woman. Jeebus.
Echoes of Copeland to my untrained ear.
I snatch a glimpse of the army of photogs in front of the musicians elevated above the Congress. And I wonder idly if Melina Mora, who shot my daughter's wedding and now works at the Washington Post, is there as well. Prolly.
"Preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
"To see his children skip up there with him, that was the highlight of the morning."
OOH, cannons.

Inauguration Liveblogging II

He arrives, I cannot help it, alone here with the puppy. I applaud.

"He stopped for a minute to do this little hand things with his daughters." NPR
I didn't see it.
DiFi, go away.
Omigod, she's giving a speech.

Inaugural Liveblogging

Okay, I couldn't resist.
GHW Bush is tottering like the old man he is. Did he injure himself when parachuting on his last birthday?
The Big Dog and Hillary look great, holding hands as he puts his arm around the guy he beat out. the old totterer.
Rahm!!
The Bush girls.
Axelrod is visible behind Hillary and GHW.
The Obama girls!! and Gramma.
Sasha in red, Malia in royal blue.
Laura and Lynn. Muted. I see a lot of red hats in the audience. Not the ladies in red hats.
Big Dog stands next to MLK III.
Malia is using her camera. It reminds me of my cousin's grandaughter trailing after the photog at my daughter's wedding.
Michelle!!!
GWB. May be the last time I have to look at him.
The Big Dick in his wheelchair.
Michelle's gloves are definitely green, so the NPR discussion about the color of her ensemble must go for the "mustard" side.
GWB.
Steny Hoyer, Harry Reid.
The Supreme Court is wearing these odd hats, NPR says nobody seems to know how that evolved.
Barack!!!!
Behind Nancy. Okay, here's where I tear up.
It's the biggest job in the world. And he's only human.
The weight of the world, as NPR says it.
Difi is on the arm of some miltary type. Why? Is she crippled, too. Did she parachute on her birthday?


'

Oh, The Age Of Irony

is not over after all.
Nina Totenberg (sp?) of NPR just informed us that Obama's oath of office will be administered by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, a man whose appointment he voted against.
Only in America.
There is a ton of race commentary.

In The Meantime

despite the inauguration, life goes on. From the always dependable Jerome.

The current banking system is terminally bankrupt. Banks today will not lend, even to sound businesses, even if you give them the money to do so. So you have to compel them to lend. Banks (or more precisely, their shareholders, management and creditors) should not be saved: they should be repsectively wiped out, fired and  made to take their losses. The banking infrastructure (including most employees, which  had little or no responsibility in the crisis) can be diverted from its prior uses towards those now determined by government as part of the mopping up exercise of the hole that the very banking system created.

Financiers are part of the problem, not part of the solution, right now. Don't save them. But save the boring, utility bits of banks. Banks will not do that on their own. Government has to force them. Urgently.

Couldn't Happen To A Nicer Guy

Namely, Deadeye Dick. Yeah, that Dick.

US Vice President Dick Cheney pulled a muscle in his back while moving boxes and will be in a wheelchair for Tuesday's historic inauguration of incoming president Barack Obama, the White House said.

I Am In Tears Again

This is probably over the fair use 500 word limit, but TPM doesn't always create a separate link for its front page items.

rom TPM Reader AR ...

So this is why Al Gore had to lose. Had he won, we might have been witnessing the inaugural of President Joe Lieberman. Or, worse still, President Jeb Bush. True, we may have avoided 9/11 because a President Gore would have read and acted upon the Presidential Daily Brief that warned of an impending attack by Osama bin Laden, and because he would have heeded Richard Clarke's dire, "hair on fire" warnings about Al Qaeda. True, we would not have gone to war against Iraq had 9/11 occurred, a conflict that has benefited Iran (and thus Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood) more than any other nation. Instead, we would have gone into Afghanistan with Pakistan's help - notice Pakistan's new found lament that it is a "victim of terrorism" - and rounded up Osama bin Laden and his henchmen, ending the scourge that is Al Qaeda. True, Hurricane Katrina would have been handled with competence, the capital markets would not have collapsed as a consequence of deregulation run amok, and global warming would have been arrested if not reversed. But, we would not be inaugurating President Barack Hussein Obama's first term. And this is why John Kerry had to lose. Had he won, we might have been witnessing the second inaugural of a Kerry administration, or perhaps the first inaugural of a McCain/Lieberman administration. True, the Iraq war would likely be over and a few thousand American soldiers and private security contractors would consequently be alive and in good health. And, the markets and health care and roads and bridges and our other national ailments would be just that - ailments, rather than the debilitating trauma that they are today. But, we would not have had eight years of experimenting with the extreme ideology that the Bush administration has inflicted on the United States of America. And, it is this experiment that has provided cold hard empirical evidence that the blind obeisance to free unregulated markets that is the hallmark of contemporary conservatism, coupled with the unilateral, muscular, "shoot first and ask questions afterwards" foreign policy that is at the core of neoconservatism, is as bankrupt a governing paradigm as the centrally planned economy of socialism. Had it not been for the second Bush term, we would not be inaugurating President Barack Hussein Obama's first term.
From the depths of our despair that can be graphed as a downward sloping straight line starting with the Florida electoral recount, and running through 9/11, Enron, the anthrax case of domestic terrorism, Abu Ghraib and Gitmo, the politically motivated firings of U. S. attorneys, the creation of "free speech zones", Hurricane Katrina, the collapse of Wall Street, and the replacement of the Clinton budget surplus with record deficits, all occurrences on George W. Bush's watch, there now emerges an historically singular opportunity. A brown man whose middle name is Hussein is taking an oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution, something that would have been inconceivable had George W. Bush not been the 43rd President and something that takes on more than symbolic significance in light of the defilement the Constitution has suffered under the administration of the 43rd President.
In India, the country of my birth, we would call this sequence of events "Karma". In the United States of America, the country of my adoption, we should call this sequence of events "opportunity". An opportunity to restore America's brand abroad, by serving as a beacon of hope rather than as an object of fear. An opportunity to remind the world that American exceptionalism is derived from our charter documents -- the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights - not from our ability to instill fear. An opportunity to restore the rule of law at home, by eschewing torture as state policy, and restoring order to markets run amok. An opportunity to credibly put to rest a legitimately paranoid world's fear about America's imperialistic ambitions. An opportunity to again be the greatest nation the earth has ever seen. In Riyadh and in Rawalpindi, in Kabul and in Kyoto, in Madrid and in Mumbai, in the slums of Dharawi and in the streets of Dacca, the world will watch the improbable inauguration of President Barack Hussein Obama and know that, once again in America, anything is possible.

--Josh Marshall

Liveblog Redux

It was Garth Brooks, not Clay Aitken, and how would I know anyway?
For some killer pics, go here.

Helen Thomas

HBO follows today's inaugural concert with a documentary about the senior female White House correspondent, who began in 1961. Nine presidents. She's clearly a liberal. And she's clearly straightforward about all of it.
She is the daughter of illiterate Syrian immigrant parents, who she describes as "brilliant."

Liveblogging VI

Five full dress military introduce Challenger, the bald eagle who represents somethingk I guess. He's a trick eagle, apparently, but then, aren't we all?
Next.
Barack! Barack! Barack!
I did not know he would speak.
"Hello, America"
thanks everyone
celebration of american renewal
challenge of generation
losses
future
the girls are being blown in the wind, Sasha shields her eyes
Denzel is profiled in the camera'
US will endure and prevail the dream of the founders will ...
anything is possible in America
lincoln the man sho in so many ways made this day possible but in the end it's about us
if we could just recognize ourselves in one another
people who love this country can change it
true caracter revealed in hard times

Bruce is back
Pete Seeger
As I went walking ...
this land was made for you and me, this land is your land
I think I spotted George Lucas singing the words into the face of a black woman next to him.
Lucas is pretty distinctive looking, I'm pretty sure it was him.
10s of thousands
from the redwood forests to the gulf stream islands...
Beyonce
oh beautiful forespacious skies...
and crown the good with brotherhood..
THE END

— 30 —

Liveblogging V

Jack Black and Rosario Dawson. I know, I know. I hardly know who they are.
Save the environment for everyone for all time.
TR, Dawson's job here.
National parks, forests.
Is that Clay Aiken doing a R&R medley? I'm guessin.'
Wait a minute. Is America all Show Biz?
Wait a minute, I'm having a moment.
Is all government a show biz thing? Duh. With age comes wisdom. Or complete foolery.
Whoever he is, he's got a package.
Ashley Judd and Forrest Whitacker. Wait, what?
Faulkner via Whitaker. Artists do compassion. Endure and prevail.
Usher. Stevie? Shakira. If I hadn't watched this, I would't know who they all are, although I recognize the ames.
It IS Stevie. Teachers keep on teachin'. Fat Stevie. Fat Contrarienne.
The Obamas are standing and keepping time and clapping and smiling but Malia has taken a bathroom break.
Here goes Stevie.
ooh, Sam Jackson. What is that hat called? On Rosa Parks.
"I did not get on the bus to get arrested. I got on the bus to go home."
...I knew that I had the strength of my ancestors with me."
Where are our ancestors?
Here.
Get the video.
SJ has a nice , sexy gap between his front teeth. Never noticed that before.
Bono. I've never watched him perform before. Lately, there's been a lot of criticism of him.
Fuck it all. I don't care.
He's on my side. I welcome and embrace all on my side.
An Irish band indeed.
"Not just an American dream...and also a Palestinia dream...in the name of love"
"What a thrill for 4 Irish boys from the north side of Dublin..."

Just get the video.

Liveblogging IV

Ain't that America, backup by black choir, all in black, nice.
Shortybreak.
"Let's get together and feel all right."
Wycliff Jean? Just a guess. With a blond, female guitarist.
Malia is taking pictures, her dad is bobbing his head and grinning.
yeah.
Tiger Woods. Discards the non-political pledge for today.
Dad was special forces operator. Lute Col. Earl Woods.
The military card.
"I am a son of a man who dedicated his life to his country, his family and the milatary and I am a better man for it."
And rich, rich, richer.
Naval Academy Glee Club sings:
Renee Fleming leads "when you walk through a storm"
I hate that song.

Livebloggin IT III

Joe. Work is more than a paycheck.
it's about dignity.
pride in providing for families and measure their lives by their effort.
Well, yeah, I guess I have to think about that, but his speechwriter is ho hum.
Brief. No real Joe. I want Joe!
R&R prsidency mellencamp and black man with a black cat...the thing I like about all this is that artists are  by definition  alien and seditionists. heh
--ain't that America, home of the free--

Pause, Shortymac needs to go out.

Liveblogging IT II

"Fellow Citizens, we cannot escape history...we will be remembered in spite of ourselves."
Abe Lincoln, Tom Hanks.
We hold the power and bear the responsibility.
More Copeland. Kills.
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present...we must disenthrall ourselves and then we shall save our country."
"When standing erect, he was 6 feet 4 inches tall"
The orchestra is a mixed bag of military, all in their own uniforms, so the different hats seem to display the differences of all of us.
"So as I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master." Lincoln's idea of democracy.
is 2009 the year the slaves were freed?
Marisa Tomei (sp?) quoting Ronald Reagan, "how can we love our country without loving our country men" Did he say that? Well, yeah. Did he mean it. I'm sure he believed he did.
Sweet Baby James. A baby blue electric guitar. all hatted and coated against the wind and the icey chill.
Here struts in Jennifer somebody with a great gospel voice.
Shower the people with love, show them the way you feel.
James plays that stratocaster like a woman.

Liveblogging IT!

11:41 a.m.
omg there's Bruce out there in front of a horde of red-robed choir members in the icy cold before Lincoln's statue singing Come On Up For the Rising. The choire is also wearing black earmuffs and gloves. I'm still in veritable tears after Denzel, the arrival of the pres and vp elect. the Copeland common man thing, the master sarge singing the anthem. It's more than historic, it's crackling, atmosphere breaking, it's like something in a movie, a  turn, a crack in the string, a break, and here we are.
Laura Linney introduces an FDR inauguration speech (I am reminded, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself...and spiders!)
and now it's JFK (yes, there are top hats in the audience I love top hats) ask not ....etc
what have I ever done "for my country" ? Well, I guess I can say I tried to tell the truth publicly. Does that count?
Sasha is leaning on Michelle.
Blige in sand colored fantastic outfit, I love "Lean On Me," can we lean on him? Will he fall over from the weight? Please remember, it's not about him, it's about us.
"Count on me brother, when you need a hand."
Are those genuine snakeskin boots?  Or faux. Tell me they're faux. I love snakes. They eat slugs.
Jamie Fox and Steve Carrel? Whoa. Carrell  reading Thomas Jefferson. Fox on Thurgood Marshall. big screens across the mall in D.C. so everyone can hear and see it all. I love sitting here in the living room and not needing to be there to BE THERE.
Jf--Chittown stand up. "If there's anyone show still doubts..." he does Obama like only Obama does Obama. Heh.
"It's been a long time comeing."

Okay, jon Bon Jovi and someone called Bettye Lavette (Sam Cook song) It's been a long time coming. Jeebus, they're killing me.
Who planned this? Who's behind this extravaganza?
11:58 a.m.
Get the video. Still singing and a long shot shows a plane descending in the background and you gotta think, the towers, the towers, the pentagon.

I Broke The Hoover Dam

SNL was not worth staying up for last night and I apparently turned it off before the Ann Coulter skit.
However, there's always, always Will Ferrell.

Etta!!!

I would rather go blind, remember? No? Sorry. You have been robbed.

Pantless Day on the NYC Subway

Laughed til I cried. Obviously girls do not participate who do not have perfect legs. And panties. But still.

Quote O' Teh Day

"I tell people I've been working on the Obama campaign since 1932."
Man being interviewed about the significance of the new president on today's All Things Considered.
It set off a flood of memory for me, and I guess I've been working on the Obama campaign since 1950, the year I was shocked to learn that my father would not allow my best friend Diane Garnett to come to my sixth birthday party. My mother had not told me why I could not go to hers earlier, but I guess she finally decided I should know the truth. (I've been working on the Hillary Clinton campaign since 1973. There's nothing like being home alone with a 2-year-old to turn you into a radical feminist.)
We lived on Henry Street in Grand Rapids, Michigan and it was divided racially by Wealthy Street, a busy arterial. The Henry Street School was on the black side and I was one of a handful of white kids in kindergarten and first grade there. Diane was a fabulous artist and I tried to copy what she drew, but I wasn't any good and my mother also told me that truth.
One summer day a black man who worked at the corner gas station came walking up our street and Mrs. Fitzpatrick ran out of her house and chased him away, telling him he should never walk in our neighborhood of rundown rentals again. Heh.
My partner remembers his family's rather straightforward relationships with black neighbors and friends and coworkers that dated back to their origins in the rural area of Truman, Arkansas, home of the Scottsborough Boys scandal/lynching (?). They hunted and fished together and big and small gatherings always included black families and their children. It's amazing, really. We speculated that this was a community in the true sense of the word, interdependent, especially during the Depression.
I believe my dad's bigotry was the product of both his environment and his own inner sense of, not privilege, but inadequacy, which had to be put off onto others for him to bear the burden of it. He hated Spics, Wops, Kikes and Niggers, Hollanders (Dutch) and Ayrabs equally. When he came to Seattle to live, the Marine Corps veteran of WWII South Pacific horrors, demanded to know where all the Japs came from.
I also believe that deep below the surface my father was a loving man scarred by early alcohol abuse, as well as his brothers'.
BTW, KPLU disc jockey this afternoon noted after playing Etta James' classic The Jealous Kind that Beonce, who played James in the movie Cadillac something (Studios) may have sung in the movie. For sure, she's singing James' "At Last, My Love Has Come Along" at the inauguration in which Barack and Michelle will have the first dance. Another classic. It was suggested that it would be great if James were there for that, too, but who knows what shape she's in.
Calm down, I'm looking for the YouTube, I'm looking. And Billie is singing "I've been down so long that down don't worry me."
Thank God I'm an American. I'm proud, yes, sentimental and silly and unserious as that may be. It's just that my pride and feelings are based on differences as well as similarities, it's just more fun, more exciting, broadening. And I've only had one drink.
Stream of consciousness, I'd rather drink muddy water and sleep in a hollow log than...fill in the blanks.

Okay, she's more ancient than I am, but you've heard this a thousand times and it always gave you the chills.

Friedman Units

is what the progressive bloggers began calling six-month periods of time, snarkily alluding to NYT columnist, social gadfly and self-proclaimed know-it-all Tom Friedman's record of being consistently wrong about the Iraq war. He was prone to repeating every six months or so that it would be just another six months and everything would turn around.
He's been wrong about more than that and is a blatant hypicrite, as so many pundits are.
Which is why I resisted vociferously a friend's urgent call to read his new book.
Now Matt Taibbi puts it in eloquent perspective (although I have no idea what porn-stached means.)

When some time ago a friend of mine told me that Thomas Friedman’s new book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, was going to be a kind of environmentalist clarion call against American consumerism, I almost died laughing.

Beautiful, I thought. Just when you begin to lose faith in America’s ability to fall for absolutely anything—just when you begin to think we Americans as a race might finally outgrow the lovable credulousness that leads us to fork over our credit card numbers to every half-baked TV pitchman hawking a magic dick-enlarging pill, or a way to make millions on the Internet while sitting at home and pounding doughnuts— along comes Thomas Friedman, porn-stached resident of a positively obscene 114,000 square foot suburban Maryland mega-monstro-mansion and husband to the heir of one of the largest shopping-mall chains in the world, reinventing himself as an oracle of anti-consumerist conservationism.

Frontline

is always an excellent resource and is touting its definitive Obama program planned for the evening of the inauguration. But everything they do, including this program, is also available now online here.

Tonight on TV

at 9 p.m. on ABC is, I believe, the first Friday Night Lights episode since the writer's strike. I've been watching these new episodes on Direct TV, which bought the rights, sold for reasons no one seems to know, but now the network is "rerunning" them for its millions of viewers.
Okay, it's about a high school football in a small Texas town. But it's really not. Like any good character-based production, it's about people.
It's great. Try it, if not tonight, then next Friday.

Ad O' Teh Day

For more creative condom commercials, go here.

The Final Days

And it's not over til it's over, as David Kurtz of TPM reminds us.

We're in the final 100 hours of the Bush era, but we're not out of the woods yet. Before its time is up, the Administration is still trying to open up new areas to offshore drilling, and they're trying to bury a Pentagon inspector general report on the military's TV pundits program with a 4 p.m. Friday afternoon release. Then there are the last-minute pardons expected sometime between now and noon Tuesday.

Corgis

can dance. Who knew? Very much the coloring of Shortymac, who has recently earned the nickname Shredder, or The Shredder. She's fond of newspaper and cardboard, plush she likes to sleep next to my shredder. Recently she began shredding the wall near that sleeping place. Gus had started it a few years ago.

Blog Ideas

I've neither the time nor inclination to go through all the award winners for 2008, but here's a link if you want to do any of it. If you find something kewl and noteworthy and/or hilarious, unique, etc., send me an email and I'll put your rec up for the rest of us.

Obama

Obama's People

photography is art, and this man's portrait work is quite extraordinary for mass pedia. I think he's nicer to the female subjects, but it appears he's captured something here. NYT.

You Need A Break

and Andrew Sullivan says this is the one for today.

The Real Elephant Love

Truth Is Stranger Dept.

Headline O'Teh Day:
Was Bernie Madoff A Mafia Front?

From the fabulous Mr. Taplin.

With BCCI closed down, maybe Bernie and his partners saw a market opportunity. The fact that a lot of innocents got caught up in the scam is probably less important than who was getting their money out in the last nine months of Madoff’s scam.

My guess is it was the Goodfellas.

Today's Spiritual Lesson

brought to you by Hugo on Jon Taplin's most popular blog post, which received more than 300 comments in a conversation that lasted more than a month. Voice after voice.

• Hugo // October 5, 2008 at 4:15 pm

  Ken, forgive my mock erudition, but you’ve synopsized not only “Candide” but also the vast learnings of the 12th Century. The only real Progress, progress that is enduring and not merely fleeting and illusory, is the progress of the individual human soul in communio with other striving souls — not in the collective nor in the polis, but within and amongst. Human beings are fully human only in community; in community are we completed. There is no human Adam without Eve, no Eve without Adam. And no Eden save the Eden within.

  yr Hugo of Saint Victor

So This Guy Walks Into A Bar

Sorry, I really didn't know how to tell you what this post is about because it
s really late the Shortymac gets up early (right now she is sleeping under my bed).
Anyway, be your own D.J., another tip from Jay Rosen.

Why Most Journalism Is Crap

I'm still working on my own theory, but in the meantime there's always Jay Rosen.

In the sphere of deviance we find “political actors and views which journalists and the political mainstream of society reject as unworthy of being heard.” As in the sphere of consensus, neutrality isn’t the watchword here; journalists maintain order by either keeping the deviant out of the news entirely or identifying it within the news frame as unacceptable, radical, or just plain impossible. The press “plays the role of exposing, condemning, or excluding from the public agenda” the deviant view, says Hallin. It “marks out and defends the limits of acceptable political conduct.”

Anyone whose views lie within the sphere of deviance—as defined by journalists—will experience the press as an opponent in the struggle for recognition. If you don’t think separation of church and state is such a good idea; if you do think a single payer system is the way to go; if you dissent from the “lockstep behavior of both major American political parties when it comes to Israel” (Glenn Greenwald) chances are you will never find your views reflected in the news. It’s not that there’s a one-sided debate; there’s no debate.

BTW, this is not the usual self-loathing. Why in hell should I want to "save" the P-I, it's an early death in the ongoing pandemic. Something else is emerging and people much smarter than I are watching and describing it.

Oh, wait, it is the Lizard People after all.

A Former Colleague

and currently still employed reporter Derek Shepherd has some very cool photos up on Flickr here.

They Caught

this guy.
I love that. He will be prosecuted, convicted and sentenced.
But he's a gnat on the butt compared to the big criminals, who will now retire and write books about how they've been misunderstood. Or misunderestimated, as Shrubya said today, again, this time intentionally.

Elephant Love

Some Contrariennes out there think this is kewl and I trust their judgement.

At Last My Dream Come True

prom dress rugby.

This Guy

knows of what he speaks. And ya know what? I think Obama gets it, too. It's called a head fake. And progressives better pay attention.

I don't believe there is [such a thing as post-partisanship]," said Lux. "My theory of change is somewhat different than the president-elect's. And I will be fascinated to see how this plays out. But I think, ultimately, even if Obama can be post-partisan on some issues, and I think he can on some issues... At the end of the day the argument between progressives and conservatives does not yield. You don't have moments in American history where everybody is thrilled to come together and the ideas happen easily. There has been no major change in American history that has happened easily, without rancor or without partisanship."

There Is So Much On This Web Site

to love and wonder at that it's hard to know where to start.
So, let's start with "Hideously Cute Babies."
And I still don't know why Blogger won't let me use these "unsupported" files. They always did before.

Contrarienne

slips over the line onto Facebook for this Observation O' Teh Day from
Alicia Manley Lawver :
Eldest woke up early and came into our room to complain: "I can't sleep ..." No honey, you're just awake. Go read the comics. "Ok," she says with big grin.

We Are All Artists

Honest vs. Dishonest Economists

Nate Silver just came out of nowhere this year to create the best political blog on the net. He is an unashamed progressive, a statistics geek, and now it turns out he studied economics at the University of Chicago, which means he's steeped in the now discounted Friedman school.
So, when he calls out Greg Mankiw, it has the ring of credibility.
His commenters are pretty smart, too, and there are few trolls.

He knows very well what the Romer and Romer paper says -- and he's made a deliberate choice to misrepresent it.

In poker terms, this is what we'd call a "tell". Mankiw doesn't have anything. He's bluffing. Out of ideas. Taking one for the team, and touting the party line for shits and giggles. Except, this isn't exactly fun and games, and Mankiw should leave the discussions to people who are serious about getting our economy moving again.

Cancer Gene

The stuff going on in medicine and medical research just boggles me.
Here's the latest.

Don't Ever Say You Didn't Know

fGovernment figures last week showed the U.S. unemployment rate surged in December to 7.2 percent, capping a year in which employers slashed 2.6 million jobs, the most since 1945.

From these people.

Just Because Somebody Did A Study

doesn't mean it's worth shit.
l love NYC. And Chicago. And Miami. (Okay, not LA, or Vegas, but SF, sure!)
So don't believe this. Because I don't want to. So there.

Now scientists have begun to examine how the city affects the brain, and the results are chastening. Just being in an urban environment, they have found, impairs our basic mental processes. After spending a few minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold things in memory, and suffers from reduced self-control. While it's long been recognized that city life is exhausting -- that's why Picasso left Paris -- this new research suggests that cities actually dull our thinking, sometimes dramatically so.

Krugman Responds

to the kind of critique TPM printed today (below here) and you should always check in with him anyway just to be on the right side of information vs. rubbish.

Do Not Sacrifice

the good for the perfect.
I have believed this from the begining, but am not as good a writer as one of Josh Marshall's other readers.
I would link to it, but he doesn't give this stuff a separate page, so I'm running the whole thing before it disappears from the front page.

One of the most difficult dynamics in legislating is the seemingly never ending critique that the good is not perfect. That argument is in constant use and is far too often an excuse to make the bad worse or not at all. As the debate heats up on the Recovery Plan, folks need to step back and get real pragmatic. As necessary as such a plan is, it is still a dangerous gamble and a deep mortgage on the future earnings of the polity, including some of whom are yet to be born. I love Paul Krugman, but I would be much more interested in his suggestions and prescriptions than I am in his critiques (and yours too for that matter). The Recovery Plan has to thread a fine needle and deal with a bunch of conditions set in place by the Bush Administration. The Bush deficit predicted to be 1.2 Trillion this year. The Fed investment in monetary policy of almost 2 Trillion so far, the TARP use of 350 Billion with marginal or no results and a population that is largely untutored on the whys and wherefores of the economics of what went wrong and what we can realistically do to recover. Add to that the need to re-direct an already ailing economy, deal with entitlements and restructure and re-equip a fatigued military. The list goes on, schools, infrastructure,etc.

It's time for everyone with creditable and cogent suggestions to get down in the weeds and start talking specifics. How can we spend 1 Trillion plus in a timely manner that INVESTS in the national economy and not just temporarily stimulates it. How can we come to a national consensus on what to do and when.

In my mind this economic breakdown is as dangerous and impactful as the events of 9/11 and requires a united national response just as that event did. The task of the PE is to try to forge that national consensus and plan at a time when there is ever increasing skepticism over "bailouts" in general and big ones in particular.

It's time to, at the very least, couple your critique with constructive suggestions. I know that the role of the press is to point out the apparent and hidden factors and to raise awareness. But you (and Krugman) have an opportunity to add positive and creative input to the mix. Input that is sorely needed. If you don't know, then find someone who you believe does and bring their point of view forward.

Anyone paying attention, by now, knows how difficult and daunting the task. And those paying attention are also aware of the complexity and intricacy of the terrain. It's time for the chattering classes to add light
and not just heat. Educate us, inform us, but also help us to see the solutions, not just the problem.

Linkins Outtake

Why you should never, ever watch the talking heads:

Now they are talking about infrastructure spending. Zandi says it's efficacious, but you still need to get tax-cutalicious to have a full stimugasm. Gregory LOVES THE SOUND OF SOME TAX CUTS, and so does Gigot. Not so much the building of trains, because NBC has a sled, pulled by magical interns, that drive him around.

SNL

Huffpo posts all the videos the next day,
I liked this on best.

Inside Dope On Seattle P-I

at The Stranger blog. Hat tip TPM.

Lewis is 43 years old. He's worked at the P-I for eight years, and in journalism for 20. “It’s all I know, and it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do," he told me. “What I do is who I am, and I’m proud of that.” People from other newspapers have been e-mailing him to offer condolences, but that doesn't mean they have any work to offer him. “I’ve got friends in journalism. That always counted for something. It doesn’t anymore.”

Obama On Prosecuting

the Bushies.
From TPM, this key quote from a talking head show today:

"We're still evaluating how we're going to approach the whole issue of interrogations, detentions, and so forth. And obviously we're going to be looking at past practices and I don't believe that anybody is above the law. On the other hand I also have a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards. And part of my job is to make sure that for example at the CIA, you've got extraordinarily talented people who are working very hard to keep Americans safe. I don't want them to suddenly feel like they've got to spend all their time looking over their shoulders and lawyering up."

Linkins probably has a different, more amusing take, but I slept in (new puppy mom) this morning and am still, still on my first cuppa.

Commenters don't all see it as a gotcha.

Quote O' Teh Day

Dauvidian at Taplin's piece featuring the Beatles at Shea Stadium.

 We didn’t know what the Kennedy’s were involved with in the ’60’s. That why it was so painful in that it was so unreal. Not until later did it all come out with Bobby’s problems, Joe’s racketeering, the Chicago mob promises , and j edgar the bitch. But yeah, the shots just didn’t stop coming thru the ’60’s, here and overseas…..terrible times.
April 4th, 1968, I was scheduled to see the Buffalo Springfield but the show was cancelled and the National Guard brought out because of MLK…..more tragedy.

I was not conscious of the significance of all this. I saw it all through a different lens. Well, I didn't see it, is what. As a friend of mine says about Seacucus Seven, "I didn't know any people like that." Actually, now that I think it over, he meant The Big Chill.

Here we are, sitting out history. Watching it. Suspended animation. WTF?




'

There Are Days

when Taplin just kills me. If he has a wife or SO, s/he must be exhausted.

The real shock was philisophical, as if God had removed his sanction from America. Which to me is a most basic notion. Because to this day, a majority of Americans feel that America is the God Approved Nation. The one that God loves the most. 

Norman Mailer. I'm not saying I liked Mailer. I never read any of his books, a matter of principle. But he was a voice. Is a voice. Can't not hear.

As Usual: Taplin's On Top Of It

and I, like Krugman, remain "terrified."

I’m going to keep saying this until it becomes the new “conventional wisdom”–we are entering an Interregnum. The American financial system is in a critical transition from a consumption/debt to a production/savings economy. Larry Summers and his colleagues don’t understand that the citizens of the country woke up from a long slumber in the last year. Even though gas prices have fallen dramatically, we still drive less. Even though every store offers 70% off, we still shop less. We will never collectively borrow as much as we did 2 years ago. I’m well aware that we are still along way from the 25% unemployed in the Depression, but if the economists and politicians don’t realize where we are heading, we could enter our Second Great Depression.
The America of 2015 will look very different. Just how different will be determined in the next few months.

Discovery O' Teh Day

Someone named Crystal writes a blog called Boobs, Injuries and Dr. Pepper.
Who could not vote for her as humor blog of the year in a contest that often reveals new and delightful discoveries?
Explore at your own risk. I especially like the blood donor story.

Got A Note

from the folks at Change Congress today, reminding me of their petition and the movement to fight special interest funding of elections.
Go here and sign it, it's a small act, but you know it's not over just because Obama is president now.

Brought to you by your friendly, neighborhood butinsky.

High Rec

A friend who rarely expresses enthusiasm emails:

Go see The Reader.

It's at the Rose.

Don't read the review on the website or watch the Charlie Rose link until after you've seen the film.

If you come away with questions, they'll get answered in Charlie's interview by the young Michael (David Kross), Kate Winslet, and the director.

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9879

I pass it along and plan to comply. The  Rose is the refurbished antique movie house in d/t PT, a little gem.

You Should Read This Today

if nothing else. Obama's mention of SocSec and Medicare yesterday has upset a lot of people, including me. What's up that, huh? The comments on this post are enlightening and I'm all the sudden not so worried.

Social Security and Medicare are promises, not entitlements.  They are part and parcel of the societal compact we have crafted over 230 years of contest and compromise.  ...

If anything, they are woefully underfunded.  They need to be bigger.  They need to be a Pension and Health Care System that lets all of us plan for and live a decent life.  Properly managed, a pension and heath insurance system for 300 million can pretty much pay for itself.  Lift the cap on Social Security contributions, set taxes back to what they were when Reagan left office and we can have both of those programs as far as the eye can dream.

Thus Spake Journalism

John’s contributions to this paper have not gone without notice. He’s a (deft writer; diligent copy editor; pain in the neck), a man who is passionate about (the First Amendment; gerunds; the Bass Ale at Costello’s Taproom) and a newsroom leader who has (become obsessed with Google maps; not generated a single sexual harassment complaint; inspired legions of young reporters to consider teaching American Studies out at the junior college).

These people are funny sometimes.

Yeah, You So Don't Wanna Know

When one contemplates what president Bush has bequeathed - from $2 trillion deficits as far as the eye can see to a war without end in the Middle East to an intelligence capacity poisoned by torture - the jaw still drops. Did he really do this much damage to America and the world? Yes, he did.

Look, my kid is grown now. But I stiill care.

We All Have An Uncle Jay

Hat tip JL.

I Hate It

when someone I learned to loathe — in this case, Joe Klein — gets it right. Thanks a lot, Andrew Sullivan, for pointing it out. More coffee.

"This is not the America I know," President George W. Bush said after the first, horrifying pictures of U.S. troops torturing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq surfaced in April 2004. The President was not telling the truth. "This" was the America he had authorized on Feb. 7, 2002, when he signed a memorandum stating that the Third Geneva Convention — the one regarding the treatment of enemy prisoners taken in wartime — did not apply to members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban. That signature led directly to the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay. It was his single most callous and despicable act. It stands at the heart of the national embarrassment that was his presidency.

Sicko Redux

Huffpo is just a wealth of material this week (remember, I read it so you don't have to.)
Particularly fun today is Jason Linkins' always witty take on Krugman's take on Gupta, the new Surgeon General.
I personally had nothing against the appointment and am always doubtful when Krugman gets into the politics of a thing since he was so bad during the primaries.
But this time I think he's right. Gupta sounds like a tool. We'll see.
In the meantime, Linkins shares what I would call the quote o' teh day if I hadn't already written this differently:
From Rachel Sklar at the time of the dust-up over the accuracy of Gupta's CNN commentary re: Michael Moore and Sicko:

"Does it compromise my journalistic objectivity to say that Dr. Sanjay Gupta is a dick?"

Sign This Petition

Finally, an Action Alert I can support wholeheartedly.
Huffpo is sponsoring an effort to bring back the top hat at presidential inaugurations. JFK is the last new president to wear one. We already know that Obama can pull it off, but Shrubya, not so much. Hee.
Oh, was that a double meaning? Didn't mean it.
You will have to go to their site to see the pictures because suddenly Blogger will not allow me to upload "unsupported" files from Flickr. They are competitors. Is that it. Maybe I should try Google Image, but I'm too lazy to start all over.

Sassy Bitch

and others competing for annual blog awards. Online voting, so who knows?
If you yearn for the sincere girrll stuff, you can always try the blog roll here.
Me, I'm tired and preoccupied. Puppied out, man.

Why I Love Newspapers

this headline o' teh day:
Crossdressing Harvard M.D. who killed wife found hanged.
(They leave behind three children, just so you know it ain't all comedy.)

Action Alert: Lilly Ledbetter

the most famous woman you never heard of. I think she worked for Mall-Wart.
Anyway, go here, it's the least you can do. I mean, what's less than an online petition, a virtual pet?

Last year, the Senate failed to get the 60 votes necessary to force an up-or-down vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would mandate that women receive equal pay for equal work. Now, with a new session of Congress in place, the House is ready to take up the fight again.

I Thought Sanjay Gupta

was that feel-good charlatan from PBS, but turns out he's actually kinda accomplished and a bit of a celebrity M.D., which can only mean good things for his role as Surgeon General.

President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the neurosurgeon and correspondent for CNN and CBS, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.

Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer.

Climate Change And Meat Eating

Michael Tidwell makes the case. C'mon, you knew, right? But damn, that bacon sandwich was tasty.

So while some of us Americans fashionably fret over our food’s travel budget and organic content, Garnett says the real question is, “Did it come from an animal or did it not come from an animal?”

A Heartwarming Tail

From Treehugger News

Sheepdogs have helped to guard a colony of fairy penguins, and proven themselves to be very good at their job. So good, in fact, that conservationists are pondering what other threatened animals these K9s can protect.

Wash. Gov. Chris Gregoire

is in D.C. to report on her last-minute trip with other governors to visit National Guard troops in Iraq, not to accept appointment to head up Dept. of Commerce, NPR reports.
Fine with me. I'd just as soon keep her here for awhile.

Where's Chris

In D.C., even you could figure that out. But what for? Commerce, honey.

test

I love that this worked.

Harvard's Loss, Nation's Gain

Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan's appointment to Obama legal leadership and other related items.

GAZA

There are just certain things I don't want to know even though they affect my country profoundly and, probably, me and mine.
So here is an Andrew Sullivan link that could lead you where you, not I, need to go.

Get Rid of Those Old Electronic Items

Free and environmentally safe for WA residents. h/t AL
http://www.ecyclewashington.org/

Still, though, how do I get all the crap off my old PC's hard drive?
Any takers?

Call Me Naive

Well, don't, or my big brother will beat you up.
But anyway, here's a thing you can do today that will make a difference.
I've been lax about finding good action items for Contrariennes, but do this one today.
I know it sounds sappy, but you voted for Obama anyway, even though he said we are the change we've been waiting for.
Larry Lessig's a kewl guy. Here's more from him.

Best Movies

I never trusted Roger Ebert, he led me astray too often.
But I do trust Bob Mondello and other NPR sources.
You will notice, as JM has confirmed elsewhere, that Benjamin Button is not one of Mondello's 22 picks. So sorry, Brad. You're cute, but that's not enough.
But howcome not Julian Schnabel's Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Too artsy?

Guide Horses, Helper Parrots

NPR in my opinion has one of the best Web sites in existence. This little story on a proposed change in service animal regulations is one of the reasons why. They read the New York Times Magazine so I don't have to.