Fables of the reconstruction

Florida and Michigan Pledged Delegates Seated With a Half-Vote Each

Clinton nets 24 pledged delegate votes in a compromise over Florida and Michigan that seats the entire delegation from each state but gives their delegates only half a vote each. The proportions allocated to Clinton and Obama are based on the results of the flawed primaries. Since Obama wasn't on the Michigan ballot, the "uncommitted" votes are awarded to him. Supers are also seated with half a vote each, but they can vote for whomever they like. Seems reasonable.

I didn't watch any of the coverage, so I can't say how it looked on teevee. From reading about the behavior of the Clinton supporters inside and outside the meeting, I would say - they're not helping their candidate.

Update: Clinton campaign says nice things about the compromise, except they're upset about four Michigan delegates they say should have been awarded to Hillary, not Obama. Four delegates with a total of two votes won't change anything, so implicitly it's over. Ickes says they'll go all the way to the convention over the four delegates, which I think is true. I think that the issue over the four delegates was probably created to give the Clinton people something to hang onto. Hillary does want to play a role at the convention, not as a spoiler, but as a champion of her supporters. Look for her to get a prime speech slot in Denver. Once Obama is the nominee, he'll agree to seat the full delegations with a full vote anyway. Hillary can take some credit for causing that to happen. Win-win.

The question that occurs to me, then, is whether this means Clinton won't concede, or will concede with the caveat that she's going to fight to get the "correct" Michigan allocation. I guess endorsing Obama and campaigning on his behalf is out of the question until September.

Update 2: As a reminder, here's the timeline of the events that led up to this.

Vote for Change Voter Registration Drive: Day 6

Today we went out to the Headhouse Market around 10:30 this morning. By 12, it started raining, and half an hour later, raining seriously. We called it a day.

Registered by me:
Prior running total: 56
Day 6 total: 2
Total to date: 58

Registered by my volunteers:
Prior running total: 87
Day 6 total: 4
Total to date: 91

More tomorrow.

Google Earth Firefox Plugin

Very cool.

(Via.)

Cokehead Jesus

Awesome business model:

U.S. customs officials have seized a statue of Jesus Christ made from plaster mixed with cocaine -- the latest sophisticated attempt to smuggle drugs from Mexico.

This is hardly "sophisticated". People have been smuggling drugs by mixing it with other materials for a long time. My favorite example is the progression of techniques smugglers have employed to bring it in via boat. Originally, they'd stash the stuff in the hold, run like hell and hope not to get stopped. Then they started creating secret compartments to hide it in, but the cops then started bringing dogs on board. The smugglers then moved to building a boat around the cargo, by first creating a hull, lining it with bricks of coke, and then layering a second hull over that. The Coast Guard then adopted the use of underwater radar that could look for air gaps within the hull. Then the traffickers started mixing the coke in with the fiberglass that they made the hull with. And so on.

Even so, Cocaine Jesus provides a good case study of the failure of the War on Drugs:

Sniffer dogs at the border crossing in Laredo, Texas, alerted officials to the smell of narcotics in the 6.6 pound (3 kilo) statue, which was in the trunk of a car being driven by a Mexican woman into the United States last week. ...

U.S. border police arrested a 61-year-old Mexican man accused of offering the woman $80 to carry the statue to the bus station in downtown Laredo.

The woman escaped back to Mexico ... .

They would have dissolved the statute in a solvent and precipitated out the coke. Let's say just for laughs that the statue contained only half a kilo of product.  Consider:

The average price of a gram of pure cocaine in the United States is around $130, according to U.S. government data.

So using my assumption, that single, seven-pound statue had $65,000 worth of product. Not bad for one trip.

Aluminum Foil Technology

The aluminum foil box locking tab: One of those many little things that at certain points would have come in very handy if I had known it.

(Via Interesting Times.)

The Rule of Law in Application

Here's your civics lesson for the day:

So, Army Col. Peter Brownback was one of the judges presiding over detainees' cases at Guantanamo Bay. He was the judge in the case of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen who was captured at age 15 in Afghanistan and accused of throwing a grenade that killed a Special Forces soldier. Khadr has been on schedule to be the first Gitmo defendant to go to trial.

Last year, Brownback tossed the charges against Khadr for lack of jurisdiction. He said, on the record, that the Department of Defense was displeased with his ruling, which was eventually overturned on appeal.

Under pressure to set a trial date, Brownback told prosecutors they first had to turn over evidence to the defense. Such as records of Khadr's treatment at Gitmo. Which, for some reason, they don't want the defense to have.

On Thursday, Brownback was fired, presumably so that a more pliant judge can be substituted: "Chief judge for the Guantanamo tribunals, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, dismissed Brownback and appointed a new judge for Khadr's case without explanation."

The rush to set a trial date is due to an election coming up. These trials are showpieces designed to fire up the moron base of the Republican Party. And you can count on McCain being all in favor of them and accusing Obama of being weak on defending America if he disagrees.

(Via Lizard Breath at Unfogged.)

Yes, We Can Have Cuteness

Awwwww:

I am Headless Baby, and I approve this message.

The Orderly Process and its Conclusion

I remain hopeful that this is correct:

Democratic strategists and other analysts foresee a resolution this weekend – one that positions Obama to wrap up the nomination soon – but there's always a chance Team Clinton opts to appeal to the party's credentials committee, which does not meet until summer. Its decision would then face ratification by the convention in late August, which opens up the possibility of a floor fight.

Intraparty warfare could mortally wound the Democrats' chances of mounting a successful effort against presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain. And for that reason, party regulars don't see Senator Clinton damaging her standing in the party in that way.

"If Ted Kennedy is the lion of the Senate, at some point in the not-too-distant future, she could be the lioness of the Senate," says Peter Fenn, an unaffiliated Democratic strategist. "She needs to go back to that with some kind of strength and credibility, and if she's viewed as blowing up this process in the coming 12 weeks, then it's going to be extraordinarily difficult for her to do what she needs to do to be a real force in the Senate." ...

The final two primaries, Montana and South Dakota, are on June 3, and Obama is expected to win both. After that, most if not all of the remaining superdelegates are likely to announce their endorsements, with Obama expected to wind up with a majority of all delegates.       

"That's just the way it will go," says Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University. "I think the Clinton forces are beginning to recognize that."             

There are people - mostly Republicans but also some stupid Democrats - who find the idea thrilling that Clinton would battle on through August, scorching the earth in battleground states against Obama and making her last stand in Denver.  The likely outcome of that would be President McCain, and the well-earned contempt of her party for Clinton. The Clintons are ruthless. Stupid, they're not.

(Via Rick Hasen.)

The Permanent Campaign

Dan Balz:

Why should this book be required reading in the headquarters of the campaigns? The simple reason is that many of the people now staffing the candidates' campaigns share the qualities and traits of a younger Scott McClellan -- caught up in the excitement of a great cause (to elect their candidate president) and now fully knowing what will await if they end up in the next White House as aides to the 44th president of the United States.

McClellan's subtext is how the permanent campaign continues to define and sometimes destroy the governing process. His warning is that, having gone through the experience of a hard-fought campaign (and he admits that he has no reservations about the way campaigns are waged), it is virtually impossible for a new administration to set aside those tactics in the White House. ...

McClellan points to the critical early decisions of the Bush team, in which the organization and techniques of the campaign were transferred into setting up the White House. Over the next five months, the Obama and McCain campaigns will be organized for combat, with war rooms, rapid response teams, over-the-top rhetoric and the magnification of sometimes trivial mistakes or differences. Will they not adopt similar techniques for selling the next administration's initiatives?

Another way these advisers can profit from McClellan's book is by recognizing that a White House post means serving both the president and the public, and that the two sometimes come into conflict. ...

The euphoria of winning in November will cloud the minds of those heading into the next White House. They will feel like Masters of the Universe. Instead, they should remember the McClellan experience and the very human story he tells.

Exoskeleton

This is intriguing:

The company's site is here.

(Via Noah Shachtman at Danger Room.)

Britain is Rapist Heaven

The British government monitors its citizens every movement with the largest network of closed-circuit television cameras in the world.  At the same time, this:

In Britain, a nation whose justice system has been used as a model around the globe, government officials and women's activists agree that rape goes largely unpunished.

Solicitor General Vera Baird, who oversees criminal prosecutions in England, estimated that 10 to 20 percent of rapes are brought to authorities' attention. According to government figures, 14,000 cases a year are reported and 19 out of 20 defendants walk free.

That's a 5% conviction rate. (In the United States, it's 13 percent, but not much better.) Let's just pause: That means in the U.K., out of a minimum of 70,000 rapes a year, 56,000 victims don't even bother to report the crime. Of the 14,000 who do report it, only 700 see their attacker(s) get punished.

About 25 percent of reports of assault and 75 percent of homicides lead to someone being found guilty. In the 1970s, the rape conviction rate ran at more than 30 percent. The difference now is that there are far more "date rape" cases ... .

It is illegal in Britain to interview jurors -- even after a verdict. But public opinion polls show that a sizable proportion -- a quarter to a third -- of Britons say a rape victim is responsible for the attack if she is drunk or wearing "sexy" clothes.

"As many as one in two young men believe there are some circumstances when it's okay to force a woman to have sex," said Conservative Party leader David Cameron, citing studies. ...

Until a few months ago, prosecutors were barred from interviewing victims and met them only on the day of the trial.

Ken McDonald, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service, called this restriction "mad." He said it dated back centuries to the days when witnesses stuck straw in their shoes outside courtrooms to indicate their testimony could be bought.

Clearly, the problem here is conservatism, in two senses: The culture's clinging to traditional notions of acceptable female behavior, and the law's inability to catch up with the times on such a thing as witness interviews.

Note also how the U.K.'s lack of a constitution harms crime victims in this instance: It is illegal to interview jurors, even after a case. In the U.S., that kind of law would be flatly forbidden as unconstitutional prior restraint of the press. If you had a full-on press inquiry into why particular jurors acquitted particular defendants, you could expose the sexism underlying the verdicts.

Gratifyingly Quick Action

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida has tossed the bullshit lawsuit filed by the officials of the Florida Democratic Party against the DNC.

An appeal is threatened. Good. Waste your goddamn money. I hope Hillary is paying the bill.

(Via Rick Hasen.)

The Volume and Idiocy of the Spin

John at drexel dems breaks it down. My favorite:

I won't beat this dead horse any more, other than pointing out that you shouldn't take seriously an argument about statistics from someone who "weighs" data, rather than "weights" it. (No joke, "weighed" or "unweighed" appears exactly 27 times in the analysis. Not a typo!)

An Orderly Process

I hope the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee resolves the Michigan and Florida mess at its meeting this weekend by seating at least half the delegations in sensible proportions based on objective criteria. I also hope on June 4, the day after the last primaries, nearly all the remaining undeclared superdelegates announce their endorsements. I assume this will confirm Obama as the presumptive nominee, and in short order Clinton will concede and endorse him. (And if she considers fighting on, I hope a majority of her superdelegates make it plain to her campaign that they will switch and render her a Huckabee-like figure.)

I hope all this comes true not because the nomination fight might hurt Obama substantively, although that is a risk. I hope all this because taking the battle to the convention makes the Democrats as a party look like it can't run its own business. There are people who think a summer of the Obama v. Clinton show followed by a convention floor fight would be morally just, politically productive, just plain fun, or some combination of the three. I think they don't understand the electoral disaster they're courting.

A central theme that Democrats are running on this year - especially the presidential candidates, but all congressional candidates, too - is competence. The issue that lies at the center of our criticisms of Bush and the congressional Republicans is that they can't (or won't) do the job they were hired to do. The decision to invade Iraq - incompetence. Abandonment of the pursuit of al Qaeda and the failure to kill bin Laden - incompetence. Katrina - incompetence. The economic whirlpool created by the real estate crisis and gas prices - incompetence (whether it can be fairly laid at Bush's feet or not). Failure of the Congress to act as a check on the Executive - arrogance, corruption, but most of all, incompetence. The list goes on.

I think it's hard to overstate how inept we will look to independent voters if we don't have a nominee until August 28th, especially because the overwhelming likelihood is that the end result will be that Obama will be that nominee anyway. You already knew that he would win it, the public will say, so why couldn't you have wrapped it up back in June? If we look like buffoons at this governance business, why should the public want to trade one bunch of jackasses for another?

The problem is not caused by, but it certainly would be exacerbated by, the media. Tim Russert declaring the nomination decided after North Carolina was both descriptive and normative. The Villagers now expect the Democratic party to move on, and will be accordingly vicious if their expectations are not met. The summer is a silly season for news, and jawing about how the Dems are eating their own will fill the time nicely. I don't advocate caving in to the Villagers' demands, but their behavior is a factor to consider.

Right now, the people are still voting. Right now, we are simply letting the process play out as designed. Short-circuiting that process by pressuring a viable candidate like Clinton out early would have been delegitimatizing to the nominee and the DNC. But allowing an almost-certainly pointless brawl to drag on for nearly three months after the primaries are complete is far worse, because it undermines the main benefit all Democratic candidates everywhere are offering voters this fall.

Florida and Michigan - How We Got Here

Mr. Super lays it all out:

August 31, 2007: The Democratic Parties from the four states sanctioned by the DNC to hold elections in the pre-window period - Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina - issue a pledge to all of the Democratic candidates to honor the DNC rules and not campaign in any other states attempting to break DNC rules by holding early elections.

I hope the FL/MI portion of this matter will be wrapped up this weekend, and the entire thing concluded by the end of next week.

And a pony!

I Should Have Died at Age 5.1??

Fun tool to find out when you "should" die based on how much greenhouse gas you produce. I've been playing with house money for almost four decades! W00t!

(Via Roy.)

Paul Krugman Loses His Mind, A Little

They haven't been approving my comments over at his blog recently, so I'll reproduce it here:

Prof. Krugman-

You have been doing a great service by criticizing Obama's policy positions on health care, for example. But your political instincts have deserted you, for some reason.

That the primary season has been contentious, there is no doubt. That Sen. Obama bears the responsibility for bitterness (there's that word) among Hillary supporters is a joke. Hillary's fans are suffering from the emotional letdown of losing after being sure as recently as December that it was a lock. I thought it was a lock, too, but was just surprised, not angry - as you obviously are - that it was not so.

Your column today approaches concern troll level. There is nothing that Sen. Obama can do now that will appease the outraged Clinton partisans, short of dropping out himself. Once Sen. Clinton drops out, however, I have no doubt that Sen. Obama will do a very good job at bringing the vast majority of her supporters to his side. If you haven't noticed, he's quite good at making people like him. And his campaign is remarkably competent, especially by contrast to Sen. Clinton's.

Of course, there are those who claim now that they will never vote for Obama. Never, I say! Others actually declare they will campaign for McCain. Maybe some of these fools mean it, and will do it.  But they are a vanishingly small minority, I trust.

I also trust you will tone down your rhetoric after Obama does unite the party behind him. Perhaps you'll give yourself a little pat on the back for giving him the "right advice" way back in May, during the throes of the primary fight.

I have great respect for Krugman, usually. I told him at Eschacon that I liked the fact that he was criticizing Obama's policy positions, because liberal criticism can produce better policy. I still think so, as far as that goes. But his little campaign on Hillary's behalf is perplexing. I don't understand what's going on with him, because most of his political commentary relies on using common sense and looking at the big picture. The level of derangement he's shown over the Obama-Clinton contest implies the opposite. I have had the uncharitable thought that maybe he has more of a dog in the fight than we know - like the promise of an appointment. Who knows?

Stick to policy, Paul.

(Via the extremely astute Prometheus 6, who you should be reading if you aren't already.)

Update: dNa at Too Sense:

The truth of the matter is Hillary Clinton has recieved grotesque treatment...at the hands of the press, not the Obama campaign. Conversely, Obama has recieved grotesque treatment at the hands of the Clintons, from Bob Johnson to Geraldine Ferraro to Stephanie Tubbs-Jones lauding Obama's "native dress" on television. Clinton supporters seem as incensed by her loss as they are at Obama's graciousness in response to Clinton's attacks, they wish, desperately, that he behaved in the same manner she has, because then it would provide some excuse for their continued animosity.

(Via Cole.)

Who is Fairest of Them All?

Epiphany (or maybe just stood in the sun too long yesterday):

The Obama campaign has positioned him as the "post-racial" candidate, which is a cogent fit with their overall message of change. What I have come to appreciate is what a brilliant electoral strategy it is, especially now. It's brilliant because it turns Obama's weakness - white racial thinking about making a black man President - into his greatest strength.

One of the keys to winning Presidential elections is to make white people feel good about themselves. White people, being the top of the social and economic heap in American society, enjoy their status but are filled with anxiety. White males, especially so, being at the very tippy-top. They have the most to lose, and they fear what would happen if they did lose it, so their relative wealth and privilege provides them both a great deal of pleasure and a sense of dread. Dread of what? Scary black people, scary lesbian and gay people, scary poor people, scary Muslim people, scary atheist people. (Once upon a time, scary Russian people, but they're sort of our buddies now. Like the formerly scary Chinese people, who are occasionally still scary, but not when they're keeping our economy afloat.)

Nearly every presidential election in my lifetime has been won by the campaign which best allayed white people's fears, and made themselves feel good about themselves.  The most obvious example is Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America", which had a strong racist component that conveyed to white voters that the government would no longer be lenient on criminal blacks (and lazy whites - note the correlation). Bill Clinton won twice - and Hillary Clinton almost won this time - by reassuring working-class whites that the government would be on their side economically again, because as Hillary so pithily put it, white people are the "hardworking Americans".  Bush won in 2004 by promising to keep white, Christian America safe from the scary, swarthy Muslims, and told his voters they were the brave, freedom-loving ones. And so on.

One of the persistent sources of unease among whites is, ironically, the feeling that America is not making much progress in the area of race relations. (Just typing "race relations" evokes the politics of decades long gone by, which is sort of the point.) They want to maintain their relative social and economic dominance, but they want to feel good about themselves while doing it.

Feeling good about themselves is what Obama offers white voters. And they don't have to do much to get that feeling - all they have to do is support him.  The number one applause line in Obama's speeches is not about the war, not about the economy, not about a new kind of politics - it's the line about how different people have come together in this movement for change. This is the heart of the "post-racial" appeal, and white voters love it. They see this campaign as a watershed moment in American history, when we reach a milestone that will take the country in a better direction, and leave the past behind. They want to be on the right side of that moment, they want to be present when it happens, they want to help make it happen. All they have to do to claim that they helped is to put a bumper sticker on the car, pull the right lever in November, maybe hit a contribution link online for a few bucks. No legislation, no social spending, no policies or programs, none of the expensive, complicated and contentious stuff they only fitfully and rarely get behind. Just one guy, and poof! Progress, as it says on the poster.

Not only does the Obama campaign capture the energy of this pent-up demand for white self-regard, it also casts the opposition as being the champion of old-style racial division. Who is against progress in race relations? The images that come to mind are of George Wallace, Alabama state troopers, Bull Connor, fire hoses and police dogs. Many white voters lived through that era, were ambivalent about the events then even if they can't remember being so now, and are consequently very interested in looking for something that symbolically defeats the forces of evil. This places the McCain campaign and Republicans generally in the role of the forces of evil, which is exactly where the Obama campaign wants them.

Brilliant.

I may sound cynical or critical in this post, but I don't think I am being either. I want to win this election, and although I wouldn't say I would be happy to win whatever it takes, I think this sort of inclusive, progressive propaganda is well within the bounds of acceptable behavior. It may even have substance, perhaps a lot of substance, behind it. But even if it is almost all smoke, it's still better than promoting division and hatred. And having a Democrat in the White House at a time when we're bogged down in a foreign policy disaster and when a couple of Supreme Court vacancies are coming soon is worth blowing a little smoke.

Vote for Change Voter Registration Drive: Day 5

Today was the second day of the music festival at Penn's Landing, and the second day of perfect weather for registering voters.

People are very enthusiastic about voting for Obama. The volunteers are incredibly enthusiastic. Most have never done anything political before.

Only a few people were for McCain, usually older white men.  As I was packing up, one guy who had passed me several times during the day said, "You know what, though? If he [Obama] gets in, it'll be the first President with a WIC card."  I don't know if he was a McCain supporter or a Hillary supporter. I suspect both. I told a friend about it and she said, "Ew." But you know what? It's stuff like that that makes me happy to be supporting the right candidate. Tell me where the racists are, so I can stand on the other side.

Registered by me:
Prior running total: 50
Day 5 total: 6
Total to date: 56

Registered by my volunteers:
Prior running total: 52
Today: 35
Total to date: 87

Is another 2,000 possible before the deadline of October 5th? I think 2,000 would be a nice number.

Why Do States With Meth Problems Love Me?

There are a couple of sexist gags that detract from the humor, but Hillary's Thought Process Flowchart is kind of funny:

(Via Phawker.)

Vote for Change Voter Registration Drive: Day 4

Today I organized a voter registration event outside a music festival. A lot of people signed up online to volunteer, but only a quarter of them showed. Still, we had too many volunteers to cover just the festival, so I sent teams of 3-4 out to Rittenhouse Square (rich, white urban liberals) and The Gallery at Market East (middle-income African-Americans and Hispanics). Beautiful weather today, have to remember sunblock tomorrow.

I had the bright idea that a lot of New Jersey people come into Philly, so I printed out New Jersey voter registration applications (in both English and Spanish). About 10% of the people we got were Jersey.

Registered by me:
Prior running total: 43
Day 4 total:  7
Total to date: 50

Registered by my volunteers:
Total today: 52

More tomorrow.

Is Barack Obama Muslim?

The answer can be found at isbarackobamamulsim.com.

(Via Sally Hemings.)

Florida Democrats Sue DNC For Voting Rights Act Violation

Lovely:

Florida's history of discrimination against African Americans should force the national Democratic Party to count all of the state's delegates at its national convention, a federal lawsuit filed Thursday claims.

The suit, filed by state Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller and two other Democrats, claims that the federal Voting Rights Act prohibits the national party from stripping the state of its convention delegates.

The Civil Rights-era law requires the U.S. Justice Department to approve any significant voting change in Florida to make sure it doesn't disenfranchise minority voters. Geller argues that includes the Democratic National Committee's demand that Florida switch ''from a state-run primary to party-run caucus system'' to avoid losing its delegates.

''The purpose of this lawsuit is not to support one candidate over another; it's to enforce one of the most basic tenets of our democracy: Count the votes as they were cast,'' Geller said in announcing the lawsuit.

I assume this will be dismissed in due course, but it will take a few weeks.

Here's the video of Geller laughing at the idea that the DNC would punish them for violating the rules:

Screw that fat fuck.

Update 5/29/08: Case dismissed.

A Nice Coda for James Yee

You may remember Capt. James Yee, the Muslim Army chaplain at Gitmo. Yee was arrested, held in solitary confinement for 76 days, falsely accused of espionage and threatened with the death penalty for treason, before the case fell apart and it became clear that he was entirely innocent.

What's he doing now?

Thurston County[, Washington] is sending an unusually large number of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August, including well-known former Army chaplain James Yee, who is pledged to Sen. Barack Obama. ...

Yee is a Muslim who was jailed amid suspicions he was acting as a spy at the U.S.-run detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2003. An investigation cleared him of all charges, and he won an honorable discharge, although he said he's still trying to get back all of the materials taken from him during his arrest. ...

Yee was elected Saturday at the 9th District convention at North Thurston High School, one of nine congressional caucuses Democrats had throughout the state.

"I came out and basically reiterated that Sen. Obama is really the only candidate that consistently campaigns on rejecting torture without exception, on closing Guantanamo Bay, restoring habeas (corpus) and adhering to the Geneva Conventions," Yee said Monday.

He added that he sees himself as "living proof that civil liberties have been eroded since 9/11" because of what he calls "fear-mongering politics" led by conservatives.

I hope they feature Yee's compelling story at the convention and allow him to be the one to cast Washington's votes (assuming that's possible - I don't know how the rules work with regard to state delegations).

Update 5/22/08: Field negro says the Republicans will try to make a Rev. Wright-style scandal over Yee. I must still be naive, because I didn't even imagine they would be such scum as to try again to slime a man who was falsely arrested once.

CNN Can't Calculate Percentages

It may be corrected at some point, but CNN had this up as the returns from Kentucky:

See the problem? The votes are all in, but the percentages don't add up to 100. Clinton should be at 67%. I've noticed this during other primaries, too. Calculating a percentage with only three numbers to add is dirt simple. Why is it they screw this up?

QOTD: Doing It For Cash

Molière:

“Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.”

(Via Darker Me and Boinkology.)

Local Programming: Drinking Liberally Tonight

Drinking Liberally tonight. Same as it ever was. Tangier. 18th & Lombard. 6 p.m. Drink specials. Free wings. Blogger geekiness and activist earnestness. Some politicians might be there, might not.

Also, track the primary returns from Kentucky and Oregon.

Iran is as Great a Threat as the Soviet Union?

Who is right?

Republican John McCain accused Democrat Barack Obama of inexperience and reckless judgment for saying Iran does not pose the same serious threat to the United States as the Soviet Union did in its day. ...

"Such a statement betrays the depth of Senator Obama's inexperience and reckless judgment. These are very serious deficiencies for an American president to possess," McCain said at the restaurant industry's annual meeting.

He was referring to comments Obama made Sunday in Pendleton, Ore.: "Iran, Cuba, Venezuela — these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, `We're going to wipe you off the planet.'"

Soviet Political and Economic Power

Let's talk about the U.S.S.R.

The Soviet Union was the epicenter of a coherent, persuasive political ideology which was in direct conflict with that of the United States. This ideology was adopted by or heavily influenced the governments of countries on every continent except Antarctica, and was championed for a time by significant factions in the United States and other western countries.  This posed a grave political threat to the United States and its allies.

Economically, the Soviet Union grew rapidly before the inefficiencies of central planning killed it off. In 1930, its economy was 10% of the size of the U.S. economy. By 1950, it was 20% of the U.S. economy, and was larger than any other European country's economy. By 1970, it was 60% of the U.S., a very impressive growth rate. It was the world's leading producer of oil, coal and iron ore, and had numerous other natural resources. This gave Soviet leaders the ability to finance cooperative governments around the world, adding to the political threat to the U.S.

The Soviet political structure gave its leaders the maximum amount of control over their ability to remain in power and to direct the policy of the nation, including when to make war. This, in combination with the country's ideology, meant the Soviet leadership had both great potential for hostility to the United States and the ability to translate that hostility into action.

Soviet Military

In terms of military capabilities, the Soviets at the height of the Cold War had a population between 240 million to 270 million to draw on for its armed services. Both men and women were conscripted.

In 1984, the Soviet Army consisted of 94 active tank, motorized rifle and airborne divisions, and their Warsaw Pact Allies had 55 active divisions. A division consists of 10,000 to 20,000 soldiers, meaning the Soviet Army and its allies had 1.5 million to 3 million combat personnel. These forces had the potential to successfully invade Western Europe and defeat the combined conventional forces of NATO. In contrast, the Soviet Union's land mass of 22 million square kilometers - the largest country by area in the world - had made it virtually invulnerable to invasion throughout Russian history.

At that time, the Soviet Navy had four fleets with 186,000 sailors aboard ship, and an additional 281,000 stationed ashore. In the mid-1980s, it possessed over 250 different ship types, including a large attack submarine force which could inflict serious damage on shipping and U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups as well as nuclear missile submarines force capable of striking the United States mainland without warning.

Also:

During the Cold War, the Soviet Air Force was rearmed, strengthened and modern air doctrines were introduced. At its peak in the 1980s, it could deploy approximately 10,000 aircraft, and at the beginning of the 1990s the Soviet Union had an air force that in terms of quantity and quality fulfilled superpower standards.

For example, the Soviet MIG-25 Foxbat could outclimb and outrun Western fighters, and had better supersonic endurance. An Iraqi MIG-25 scored the only air-to-air kill of a U.S. aircraft in the first Gulf War.

Soviet Nuclear Arsenal

And of course, the Soviets had nuclear weapons. In 1986, they possessed 45,000 of them, 20,000 of which were tactical (battlefield) weapons, and 25,000 of which were intercontinental ballistic missiles. In terms of number of warheads, it was the larger than the American inventory.

Iranian Political and Economic Power

Now, let's talk about Iran.

Iran is the promoter of a minority brand of militant Shiite Islam, which is itself a minority in the world Islamic community. A significant percentage of young and educated Iranian citizens reject the strictures of this ideology, and some flaunt their violations of it despite repercussions. Because of its anti-modernist tendencies and sectarian nature, Iranian ideology has no purchase whatsoever outside of the Middle East region.

Iranian GDP is approximately $852 billion. The U.S.'s is $14 trillion, sixteen times larger.

Iran's governmental authority is dominated by hardline clerics, but internal power is split among competing factions, including divided executive power between the Supreme Leader, appointed for life unless deposed by an elected clerical committee, and an elected President. The legislative body does not rubber-stamp executive decisions, but wields real power, and consists of a majority of conservatives/Islamists, but also a large percentage of independents and reformers.

Iran's Military

Iran's military consists of about 545,000 personnel in the regular forces, and 125,000 in the Revolutionary Guards, which competes for scarce resources. The country's male military-age population that is fit for service is approximately 17 million. Women are exempt from military duty. Military expenditures are about $6 billion. U.S. military expenditures are around $568 billion and the military-age population that is fit for service is about 119 million. The U.S. has 1.4 million active duty personnel and 1.5 million reserves. Men and women serve in the U.S. armed forces.

Iran's military has only produced its own weapons since 1992, relying on aging foreign hardware before that. United States military equipment is the most technically advanced in the world.

Iran's regular army has a total of 350,000 personnel in ten military divisions, four armored and six infantry, as well as two commando brigades and one airborne brigade. In modern times, Iran has not successfully invaded another country. In the 1980s, it fought a bloody, expensive and inconclusive war with its neighbor, Iraq.

Iran's Air Force has 52,000 personnel and a total of 65 modern fighters in service, as well as 188 fighters  of older design. The United States Air Force has 329,000 personnel and 5,778 aircraft, of which 2,402 are fighters. In addition, the United States Navy has 3,700 aircraft.

Iran's Navy is, in a word, pathetic:

As of 2001 the regular Iranian navy was in a state of overall obsolescence, and in poor shape because they have not been equipped with modern ships and weapons. Iran's three destroyers are over 50 years old and are not operational. The readiness of the three 25-year-old frigates is almost non-existent, and the two 30-year-old corvettes do not have sophisticated weapons. Ten of 20 missile-equipped fast attack craft have limited operational readiness, and four of them are not seaworthy as of 2001. Only 10 Chinese-made Thodor-class craft are operationally reliable. The four 30-year-old minesweepers are obsolete, lack seaworthiness, and do not have a mine-sweeping capability. Iran has many amphibious and auxiliary ships, but these are superfluous to requirements and are used purely for training personnel. Iran's ten hovercraft are old and used sparingly.

Iran's navy has 20,000 men, but they are young and inexperienced, and most of them are riflemen and marines based on Persian Gulf islands. And at higher levels, there is fierce rivalry between the IRGC and regular navies for scarce resources. Due to these shortcomings, Iran's three Kilo-class submarines would be vulnerable, and they are limited to laying mines in undefended waters.

This is remarkable for a nation dependent on protecting its sea lanes for its economy and security.

Iran's Suspected Nuclear Weapons Program

Finally, Iran has no nuclear weapons, and no missile or aircraft which could deliver one to U.S. territory. Iran is suspected of having a nuclear weapons development program, but this is controversial.

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Clearly, not only is the magnitude of the threat to the United States from Iran not equal to that of the former Soviet Union, the two are not even remotely comparable. On no axis - politically, economically, or militarily - does Iran come close to having the ability to challenge the United States. Its fortunes have improved so much recently only because the United States did it the unintended favor of removing their principal adversary, Saddam Hussein. The only possible threat from Iran to the United States is a disruption of the oil supply caused by a regional conflict between Iran and our Sunni ally, Saudi Arabia, but such a war would have severe negative consequences for Iran's economy. The threat Iran poses to America's other principal ally in the region, Israel, consists entirely of hostile speeches by politicians.

If John McCain really believes that Iran threatens America as much as the Soviet Union did, then he is completely unfit to be President of the United States. I suspect he is simply lying, which is just about as bad.

Note: I have no expertise in economics or military studies.  The sources in this post are ones I gathered in half an hour of googling, and it is more than likely that I have some facts wrong, particularly in the numbers cited. Even if some of the details were to change, I believe the overall conclusion would not.

2008 ACLU Membership Conference: June 8-10, Washington, D.C.

I'll be attending this again this year. (My posts from the last conference are here, here, here, here, here and here.)

There will be a lot of back-slapping and "yay for us" at this thing - there always is - but there will also be substance. I'm particularly looking forward to the opening plenary with Glennzilla, Rachel Maddow and Arianna Huffington, Anthony Romero's keynote the next day, and the workshops on the surveillance society and freedom of information on the web. The guy who played Kumar in Harold & Kumar will be there. Also, Barry Lynn and Justices Scalia, Souter and Ginsberg will attend a lunch honoring Nadine Strossen.

Other than Scalia, there is a remarkable lack of conservative speakers. Last time, we had Ken Starr, Bob Barr, and Wayne LaPierre, as well as Scalia. Barr actually over very well. The absence of such people this time probably means that Romero has given up on his quest to make common cause with conservative civil libertarians, which is sad but not really surprising.

Here's the full agenda. If you want to go, full registration is $375, but the day passes are more affordable.

The Difference Between LA and NYC

(Click to embiggen. Via the wonderful Zoe.)

QOTD: That'll Leave a Mark

Is it on? I think it's on:

“Here's the truth: the Soviet Union had thousands of nuclear weapons and Iran doesn't have a single one. But when the world was on the brink of nuclear holocaust, Kennedy talked to Khrushchev and he got those missiles out of Cuba. Why shouldn't we have the same courage and the confidence to talk to our enemies? That's what strong countries do, that's what strong presidents do, that's what I'll do when I'm president of the United States of America.

“So, you know, for all their tough talk, one of the things you have to ask yourself is what are George Bush and John McCain afraid of? Demanding that a country meets all your conditions before you meet with them, that's not a strategy; it's just naïve, wishful thinking. I'm not afraid that we'll lose some propaganda fight with a dictator. It's time for America to win those battles, because we've watched George Bush lose them year after year after year. It's time to restore our security and our standing in the world.

“And you can vote for John McCain and nothing will change. We'll keep fighting a war in Iraq that hasn't made us safer. We’ll keep talking tough in Washington while countries like Iran ignore our tough talk. Or we can turn the page. We can restore the tradition of tough, disciplined and principled direct diplomacy that we've always used to protect the American people and advance America's interests. That's what Kennedy did, that's what Reagan did, and that's what I will do as president of the United States of America. That's a fundamental difference between myself and John McCain.“

I Used One of These For My First Job Out of College

The Compaq "luggable" computer weighed 28 pounds and was the size of a sewing machine:

To transport it, you locked the keyboard in place over the front and carried it by the handle on the other side, like a suitcase.

The first time I ever had to get treated for a rotator cuff injury was after traveling with one of these.

It was state-of-the-art. Nice, bright monochrome screen, two 5.25" floppy drives, and 128K of RAM standard, whether you needed that much or not.

You put the MS-DOS floppy in one drive, then you put the application floppy in the other, say, Wordperfect for DOS or Lotus 1-2-3. That's right, there was no hard drive. Everything was saved to floppy. Which could easily melt if you left them out on your carseat on a warm day.

I wrote a Lotus macro for one assignment and the chief IT person at the company - who I think was also the benefits person - called me a "power user."

It cost $3,590, I just learned, which is $7,618 in today's dollars. Wow.

Here's the review of it from the January, 1983 issue of Byte Magazine.

(Via Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing.)

Local Programming: Four Philly Cops Fired For Beating Suspects

I'm shocked:

Philadelphia's police commissioner said Monday that four officers will be fired and four others disciplined for their roles in the beatings of three shooting suspects, an encounter that was captured on videotape and drew widespread outrage.

Another eight officers who had physical contact with the suspects will undergo additional training on the department's policies concerning the use of force, Commissioner Charles Ramsey said. He said the police department made the disciplinary decisions after reviewing frames from enhanced tape of a video shot by a television news helicopter on May 5.

I fully expected this matter to be swept under the rug. It's not unprecedented, but it's unusual. I'll be interested to read what the FOP has to say about it - maybe they squared them first.

Of course, this would never have happened if there wasn't video.

The video, shot by WTXF-TV, shows the suspects being pulled from their car on the side of the road and groups of officers kicking, punching and beating the men. A total of 19 officers — 18 city police and one transit officer — were involved.

Two of the officers being fired are relatively new to the force and can be terminated immediately, Ramsey said. Two others are being suspended without pay for 30 days with intent to dismiss.

Three other officers are being suspended and one sergeant is being demoted. A criminal investigation is continuing.

I don't expect criminal charges, either. It would be nice to be wrong again.

Update 5/20/08: No, the FOP is being the FOP. As usual, there is no such thing as a bad cop, unless he does something to another cop. The rest of us are just their subjects:

John J. McNesby, president of Lodge 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police, accused Ramsey of rushing to judgment.

"Every common criminal has the right to due process under the law," McNesby said. "Here, the officers didn't get due process. They weren't interviewed. It was more or less, they were guilty until proven innocent."

Did you watch the tape? Maybe you could suggest the scenario in which their behavior would be acceptable. Also, along with due process, the rights of criminal suspects (you forgot that part) include the right not to get beaten by the cops for no good reason. So maybe this isn't the strongest point for you.

McNesby said that the FOP will appeal Ramsey's decision on behalf of the eight officers. He lamented that city leaders are "sending mixed signals" to officers.

"They want a war on crime, but they don't want any casualties," McNesby said. "These guys" - the three suspects - "just shot up a street corner for God sakes - it's not like they were coming back from choir practice. We'll back these officers 150 percent."

"They want a war on crime, but they don't want any casualties"? You fucking asshole. It's not a war of cops against civilians. You think you're entitled to decide who is guilty, and then do whatever you want to them? Fuck you, McNesby.

Speaking of due process, when were the guys in the car convicted of the shooting? I missed that one.

McNesby said that in his 20 years on the force, he knew of no other case in which officers were fired in this manner. "I don't believe anybody from the Thomas Jones incident was fired - the officers were disciplined, but not one hour of that discipline against them stood up," McNesby said, referring to a 2000 incident in which 13 officers were taped beating Jones, a convicted carjacker.

Yeah, you're proud of that.

Update 5/21/08:

District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham said today that the cases of the officers videotaped beating three shooting suspects would likely be handed over to a grand jury soon. ...

She added: "It will be given to a group of citizens with a diverse background to reach a conclusion."

Translation: A carefully selected mix of conservative blacks, Hispanics and ethnic whites will be given the task of making this go away. You've heard the saying that a good prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich? The reverse is true, too: Grand jury proceedings are secret, and it's not that hard to ensure that it doesn't lead to charges against the cops. Abraham can then say that a neutral group of Philadelphians considered all the evidence and decided not to indict, and wipe her hands of the whole thing.

QOTD: "The Party of Sadistic and Vicious Assholes"

Brad at Sadly, No!, addressing Michelle Malkin's plaint that the GOP's problem is a lack of principle:

Michelle, let me break this down for you.

The biggest problem with the Republican Party is that they’ve spent far too much time associating themselves with sociopaths such as yourself. ...

What it boils down to, Michelle, is that you’re a rotten human being. And I don’t mean that in a general, “Oh-you-disagree-with-me-on-policy-issues-so-I-don’t-like-you” sort of way: I mean that you go out of your way to hurt people on a very personal level, and you seem to get a big kick out of doing it. No political party, no matter how crazy they are, wants to be seen as the party of sadistic and vicious assholes. The fact that you have no one to vote for in this upcoming election is a major victory for the forces of decency and sanity in this country. May every election henceforth follow the same pattern.

The List Project

What a good thing. This is what it meant when Powell said, "you broke it, you bought it."

(Via upyernoz.)

Wait Until October

Portland, Oregon, yesterday:

Here's the thing: Obama is a politician with a good game plan. Part of that game plan is his charismatic personality, and the appeal to whites of electing the first African-American president in history. If you've ever attended one of his appearances, his biggest applause line isn't about ending the war, or fixing the economy, or raising the image of America around the world. The thing that gets people to leap to their feet is when he points out how all kinds of people - meaning, primarily, white and black people - have come together in this "movement." They want to be part of that, and his campaign intentionally uses it and his likability as part of their plan.

Those things are admirable as far as they go, as elements of a strategy. It's tempting to give in to the good feelings generated by pictures like this one, generated by the popular appeal of who he is, which tends to confirm the decision by Obama supporters like me to back him. While it's fine to feel that wash of good emotion, it's also important to step back out of it and realize: Politician. And I say this as someone who spent most of this weekend registering people to vote for him.

At the same time, look at that crowd, then think about the strategy: People think they are seeing something historic in a charismatic, young black man heading for the White House while also driving a stake through the heart of Republican politics based on lies, greed and fear.

It's no wonder they're excited.

If Obama does well over the summer, if things go the way we all hope they will, as people begin to realize "this guy is really going to win", what size will those crowds be like in October? Forget about being skeptical, I think everyone will be swept along. More importantly, the images generated will cause the media to buy into the heroic storyline of change, especially because it supports the Melting Pot myth. The media are suckers for conflict and heroes, and while they're going to generate a lot of the former, they're going to really embrace the narrative of the latter.

I think.

More Pressing Matters

If you spent all your time just categorizing the idiocies of right-wing bloggers, you'd never get anything else done. It's a scarf, not a keffiyeh.

My favorite comment from that S,N! thread:

And Hitler wore pants!  Just like Al Gore!

Obamacratic Takeover!

Kevin Drum is right: Barack Obama's small-donor network has not revolutionized politics. He's gotten a very good response from millions of small donors, but that (a) hardly pays all the bills and (b) doesn't necessarily mean those donors will be there after the campaign ends. The big-money people will be.

Kevin says:

[The] basic argument is that Obama has created a spectacular money machine that he can call on at will. Got a congressman who's nervous about voting for healthcare reform because he'll lose the support of the insurance industry? No problem. President Obama can send out an email to his list, raise a couple mil overnight for the guy's reelection campaign, and there are no more worries about the insurance industry. Ditto for telecommunications, entertainment, and high tech cash.

This sounds great, but I'm skeptical. Obama has been raising enormous amounts of money from small donors, but he's been raising that money from people who are enthralled by Barack Obama and are willing to donate money to help Barack Obama become president. Once he actually becomes president, however, a lot of the thrill goes away. Partly this is because once the deed is done, the deed is done and people move on. Partly it's because the real-life Barack Obama is going to have to make compromises and tradeoffs just like any other real-life politician and his supporters will inevitably become a little less enthralled by him over time. Partly it's because people who are willing to donate to the Obama campaign aren't necessarily also willing to instantly open their wallets for other people just because Obama asks them to.

Plus there's this: Although Obama, and to a lesser extent online organizations like MoveOn, have been able to raise huge amounts of small-donor money, "huge" is a relative term. The amount may be big compared to my house payment, but compared to the cost of an entire election cycle it's still fairly small. This means that big corporate donors are going to stay pretty important.

I hope this assuages some of the people who were hyperventiliating over the fact that Obama was "consolidating his power within the party" when he asked people not to donate to 527s for the general election. It's one election. You win it, or not, then you take stock. If Obama wins, then lots of good things are possible. Telling people like Mark Alderman and Peter Buttenweiser we don't need them anymore isn't on that list.

Like I Said, Sucks to Be You, John

Email this one around to your friends:

(Via Frank.)

New Voter Registration Drive: Day 3

Got out to 9th Street around 10:30 this morning. Attendance at the Italian Market Festival was down because the weather looked threatening. Sure enough, around one o'clock the rain started, then stopped for a few minutes, then began in earnest. I did run into some friends, which was cool, and then some old dude wanted to pose with me for a picture, which was creepy.

Prior running total: 32
Day 3 total: 11
Total to date: 43

Here's some really bad cell phone video of the Procession of Saints. (The files are 4-5 Mb each.) The local Catholics put these statues of their favorite saints on wooden stretchers or TV-cart-like things and take them around the Market. Draped on the statues are sashes with money pinned to them; bystanders kick in dollar bills which are added as they pass - that's what you see the women doing in the video. It's like New Orleans, only lame. This parade has taken place annually at the Festival for about umptyfuckingmillion years. No wonder people call Catholics "confused pagans" - I can't even keep track of all these saints, and I was confirmed in the Church.

I love the fact that, in the second video, two of the dudes pushing the statues around have to stop to get something to eat. (That's a mango on a stick, if you were wondering.) I also love the Mexicans in the second video - they sing! Catholics are usually such a listless bunch - you can't even rouse them with the news that the priest raped their kid. ("Just like when I was an altar boy," they say. Thanks, Dad.) Also, that Mexican Mary statue? With the sunburst? Much cooler than anything the whites have. Last year, there were more Mexicans, though, and they danced as well as sang. The whole Italian Market is really the Mexican/Vietnamese Market now, but they still need the dagos (I can say that, being one) to sell the fancy cheese and meat to the tourists. The regular produce, not so much.

Liberal Bloggers Pushing Right-Wing Smears

Delusional. Again. When you have this many enthusiastic supporters, why would you pay people to blog for you? God, people are stupid.

The Deep Logic of Marriage

Here's something I didn't know: In 1967, the United States Supreme Court, in the case of Loving v. Virginia, finally got around to striking down state laws that made it crime for people of two different races to marry.  It was not a courageous move because, at that time, of the 16 states which still had anti-miscegenation laws on the books, very few enforced them.

Thirteen years earlier, in 1948, the Supreme Court of California made a courageous decision: In Perez v. Sharp, it struck down anti-miscegenation laws under the California constitution at a time when racially discriminatory laws were the norm.

This past Thursday, that same court, in deciding In re Marriage Cases, cited Perez and held that laws forbidding same-sex marriage are forbidden under the California constitution. Just like Perez, it was a 4-3 decision. And like Perez, it was courageous.

The title of the post is ironic and refers to this quote from the NYTimes.com article:

Opponents of same-sex marriage say they are uncomfortable with the analogy to interracial marriage bans. “It’s well suited to a sound-bite culture,” said Monte Stewart, president of the Marriage Law Foundation, which supports traditional marriage.

“Sure, it works at the surface level,” Mr. Stewart continued. “But it is actually defeated by the deeper reality of marriage itself. Marriage in its deep logic has nothing to do with race and everything to do with the union of a man and a woman. To apply Perez in the genderless marriage context is actually to betray it.”

"Marriage in its deep logic has nothing to do with race" today, because of cases like Perez and Loving. Advocates of anti-miscegenation laws used the bible to justify why people of different races should not marry. The trial judge who convicted Mildred and Richard Loving wrote in his decision:

Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and He placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with His arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that He separated the races shows that He did not intend for the races to mix.

When Perez came down in 1948, you can bet people like Monte Stewart thought racial purity was an integral part of marriage's "deep logic", just as they think sexual orientation is today. And they get support for that view from people in power.

Not for much longer, I hope.

Hearts and Minds

Wonderful:

A soldier used a Quran, the Islamic holy book, for target practice in a predominantly Sunni area west of Baghdad, prompting an apology from the military, a spokesman said Sunday. ...

Iraqi police found the bullet-riddled Quran with graffiti inside the cover on a small-arms range near a police station in Radwaniyah, a former insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, U.S. military spokesman Col. Bill Bucknersaid.

I wonder what the graffiti said. At best, some hooah macho bullshit.

American commanders then launched an inquiry that led to disciplinary action against the soldier, who has been removed from Iraq, Buckner said.

The action, which happened May 9 and was discovered two days later, threatened to further strain relations between the Americans and Sunni allies who have joined forces with them against al-Qaida in Iraq in Radwaniyah and other areas.

The incident was first reported by CNN, which broadcast a ceremony at which the top American commander in Baghdad apologized to tribal leaders in Radwaniyah. The military confirmed the details in an e-mailed response to a query.

"I come before you here seeking your forgiveness," Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond was quoted as saying. "In the most humble manner I look in your eyes today and I say please forgive me and my soldiers."

The commander also read a letter of apology by the shooter, and another military official kissed a Quran and presented it to the tribal leaders, according to CNN.

The military statement called the incident "serious and deeply troubling" but stressed it was a result of one soldier's actions and "not representative of the professionalism of our soldiers or the respect they have for all faiths."

I believe this. But unfortunately, it doesn't need to be representative of our soldiers' beliefs or actions to be a huge problem. In any occupation, the occupied are primed to think badly of the occupier, so this confirmed incident will only tend to make Iraqis think that many more have happened but covered up.

Also, I look forward to the wingnut reaction to seeing the Baghdad C.O. begging for forgiveness and another U.S. Army officer kissing a Quran. (Update: They don't disappoint.) Too bad you can't kiss this away:

Bandaged girls and boys with bloodstained clothes cried as they were packed two to a bed at a hospital in Sadr City, a Shiite stronghold where most of the recent fighting has occurred.

At least three mortar rounds struck a house, an open area and a street where boys were playing soccer in the Maamil neighborhood on Baghdad's northeastern outskirts, witnesses said.

Those killed included a man and three children, according to police and hospital officials who also said at least 30 people were wounded.

Associated Press photos showed men holding two dead babies bundled in blankets. Relatives identified them as 1-year-old Zahra Kadhim and 2-year-old Abbas Nadim.

So the U.S. military delivers insult and injury while taking sides in a civil war among different Iranian-backed factions. But remember, the surge is working.

Life in the Not-So-Big City

Overheard in New York:

[hobo walks into the train with bag in cart]
Drunk queer standing behind hobo: Move it or lose it.
Hobo: Who the fuck is that?!
Queer: Queen Victoria.
Hobo: I'm a marine, I'll fucking kill you.
Queer: Let me know when you get your VA check, I'll help you spend it.
Hobo: Yeah, sure I'll do that.
Queer: In Central Park.
Hobo: I'll call you.
Queer: My number's 444-332. Call me at that number.
Hobo: I won't call you.
[they get off the train giggling]

--A train, Columbus Circle

One of the other volunteers yesterday was a very nice young woman. As we asked people to register to vote, a couple of them waved us off, saying, "I don't vote!", or "I don't like either the Democrats or the Republicans!"

"Wow, people are really angry," she said. I was perplexed.

I asked, "Where are you from?"

"Iowa."

I laughed. "Oh, okay. Listen, that's not angry. They're actually happy, because they have something to give you a hard time about.  In Philly, when people get angry, guns come out. That's when you leave." The other long-time Philly volunteer nodded.

George W. Bush Has a Lot to Answer For

Just sad.

New Voter Registration Drive: Day 2

Spent about 6 hours out on 9th Street today, bellowing that people should come and register to vote. Bellowing was necessary because otherwise no one would have heard over the music and general revelry. Saw Brendan and Roxanne and assorted other friendly faces. Got a roast pork sandwich from a vendor I didn't know and threw it away after one bite, and got sausage and peppers with sharp provolone from DiBruno Brothers (the store in the Hamgate scandal which sank Barack Obama's campaign - remember him? The black guy)  and devoured it.

A good time was had by all.

Not as productive registering voters now that the primary is over, of course. The best customers are couples - the girl drags the boy over and makes him do it - and parents with kids who just turned 18.

Total today: 31
Day 1 total:  1
Running total: 32

More tomorrow, if the weather holds.

My Agenda: Politics and Food

So, my plan for the day is to hit the gym and then go to the 9th Street Italian Market Festival, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., to register voters. Besides doing my civic duty, I get to ask all the attractive women if they want to register to vote (well, I will ask everyone) and get to sample all the food that the market vendors and area restaurants bring out.

Update: Watched CNN, with the sound off, at the gym. They were doing a health segment. Based on the chyrons, we are the stupidest nation in the history of the planet. Nothing but fear, risk, danger, disease.

Not Gonna Get Swift-Boated

I think whatever else happens in this campaign, we will not be in the position we were in 2004, with a nominee who dithered about whether and how strongly to respond to attacks.

This time we have a candidate who knows how to counterattack:

NSFW Blogging: Bondage

If you're into bondage pictures, there's a great blog called Atlanta Bondage (NSFW) that regularly posts some amazing ones, both in terms of erotic appeal and artistry.

Examples linked to below the fold.

"Tactics, Comrades, Tactics!"

upyernoz makes a very good, if capital-letter-impaired, point:

the fact that mccain has been a darling of the media for so long has its advantages. because they love him so, he's been invited to appear on various news shows over the years to discuss every issue under the sun. that means there's a whole lot of footage of him talking about almost anything you can think of. it's going to be very easy to document mccain's flip-flops.

Youtube exists. Sucks to be you, Mac.