Fables of the reconstruction

Coleman Concedes

Just watched it on CNN. It would have been classy if it had come six months ago. Wingnut hopes are dashed.

Al Franken Declared Winner

Excellent news:

Comedian Al Franken is the rightful winner of a hotly contested US Senate seat, Minnesota's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in a decision which could hand Democrats unchecked control of both houses of Congress. ...

Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty has said he will issue a certificate granting Franken the seat should the state's highest court rule in his favor.

It's not over until it's over and Pawlenty can change his mind, but it seems like this mess is coming to an end.

Local Programming: Drinking Liberally Center City Tonight

Tuesday, June 30th
Drinking Liberally Center City
6 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Triumph Brewing Co.
117 Chestnut St. (between Front and 2nd Streets)
Philadelphia, PA 19106.
Meet at the upstairs bar.
$3 beers, $4 wine, $5 well drinks all night.
Happy hour food specials: $4 pizza app, half-price burgers.

Triumph Brewery is conveniently SEPTA-accessible via the Market-Frankford El (2nd Street station), all the buses that turn around at or near Penn's Landing (12, 17, 21, 33, 42, 48), and a few other buses that pass nearby (5, 25, 47, 57). Driving directions are here.

Send In Your Event Suggestions

Like all civic-minded liberals, we're here to promote democracy and citizen engagement in the political process, especially if there is beer involved. Whether it is or not, forward any area events for the week to the Philly DL organizer by Sunday to have them included in the weekly email.

Help Us Promote DL
Spread the word to your liberal friends to sign up for a group of like-minded people who get together every week to have fun and talk about what's happening in progressive politics right now. Please forward this email to those who might be interested in coming out and Drinking Liberally.

Michael Jackson Dead At 50

Per the radio.

"Don't Do Anything Stupid"

From the Form 8-K - in this case, a filing required of publicly-traded companies called "Safe Harbor For Forward-Looking Statements" - dated June 23, 2009 and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Expeditors International of Washington, Inc., in response to a question asking the company to estimate future legal fees for an ongoing matter:

Without being trite, as we’ve addressed this topic before on more than one occasion, an attempt to predict the magnitude of these expenses at this juncture would be pointless as we feel the ongoing questions asking us to predict future legal spend have been. We understand everyone’s interest in the topic, it is something we are keenly interested in as well. We would hope, however, that everyone understands that if we actually knew enough to be able to predict our legal expenses, that would be an associative discussion which would follow a much more serious disclosure. At that juncture, legal fees would be of lesser concern.

When you come from a frame of reference, as we do, where $0 spent on legal expense would be the most preferred alternative, having to predict anything beyond that, by its nature, would become inherently and incredibly biased towards our own wants, desires and expectations. To us, this is somewhat akin to being asked to predict how many minutes after being force fed a dead frog we would throw-up…and the operative word is “force,” as we’d never elect to do either on our own. In both cases (the legal fees or swallowing the dead frog) we’re certain we would eventually throw up. In neither case do we know exactly how much money or how much time would pass before we did. In both cases, however, our gut check, no pun intended, is not very much and not very long! It should go without saying that given our druthers, we’d rather not spend the legal fees or eat the dead frog in the first place. Sometimes you don’t get the luxury of deciding what you have to eat. When you do, and it’s unpalatable, it should be obvious that you would eat as little as possible. What we are certain of is that if we were talking about being force fed dead frogs and not incurring excessive legal fees, people would be content accepting at face value that it would be as little as possible. Please rest assured, however, that whatever our legal costs are during the next year, while they will be more than we want, they will be the least amount that we can spend to completely and competently comply with ongoing requests or requirements of the various government and/or civil authorities overseeing these various proceedings.

Further down the document, in response to a question about cost-cutting measures:

We initiated a hiring freeze last year. There are, of course, reasonable and logical exceptions that need to be made in instances, for example, where new business comes on—trying to handle new business with inadequate resources flies in the face of one of our 2009 corporate goals—“Don’t do anything stupid”. Our hiring freeze is also a “Don’t do anything stupid” (D²AS) kind of hiring freeze.

I like the fact that they made "Don't do anything stupid" a defined term - "D²AS". That's the kind of touch a lawyer appreciates.

(Via Ashby Jones at the WSJ Law Blog.)

It's Just a Strategy

I agree with this:

The thing that people haven't figured out about President Obama's conduct of foreign policy is that it's the same as his conduct of domestic policy. Obama believes in the power of negotiation and public dialogue to split his adversaries--Republicans at home, Islamists abroad--and strengthen his own position. Obama's speech in Cairo to the Muslim world was simply the foreign analogue of his dealings with the GOP.

Of course, this is how he won the primary and the presidency, too.

Obama began his presidency by elaborately courting the opposition party. Republicans in Congress believed that, by flamboyantly withholding cooperation, they could deny Obama his stated goal of bipartisan harmony and thus render him a failure. Instead, they wound up handing Obama the alternative victory of appearing to be the reasonable party. Polls showed that the public, by overwhelming margins, believed that Obama was trying to work with Republicans and that Republicans were not reciprocating.

I referred to Obama's strategy during the election as the "kumbaya shtick", but I have a lot more respect for it now. It's an impressive counter to the Republican strategy of divide and rule. Call it unite and rule: Say you and your opponent are on the same page about certain fundamental things, while in reality the opponent really isn't. This puts the opponent in an untenable position of having to cede an argument over premises, leaving only an argument on the merits that the opponent will almost certainly lose because he never intended to have it in the first place. Politics is carried on behind an armor of hypocrisy. Obama's strategy is to use the way hypocrisy works as a method to defeat the armor.

On the one hand, you have a disciple of the radical community organizer Saul Alinsky turned ruthless Chicago politician. On the other hand, there is the conciliatory post-partisan idealist. The mistake here is in thinking of these two notions as opposing poles. In reality it's all the same thing. Obama's defining political trait is the belief that conciliatory rhetoric is a ruthless strategy.

That doesn't make Obama honest, not a hypocrite, but it does make him an effective politician. Which is why I voted for him. It's not that I see him as a man with certain unshakable principles, although it's possible that he is. I see him at least as a politician who has presented a certain face to the world, and he has to live up to that image or have his owned hypocrisy revealed. He understands that allowing your contradictions to show makes you vulnerable, and he likes to win. Therefore, he will do at least some of what he says he will, in order to win. Since I like the things he says he wants to do, and he's good at defeating his opponents, I found it worthwhile to support him. I have no idea if he's morally pure, an idealist, or a cynical opportunist. I have my impression, but that's not evidence. Whatever the truth is, it's irrelevant. Whether he's a hypocrite or not, he will try to do what he says he will do, and that's all I can require.

Of course, this is not good enough for the fools and the professional cynics. They don't want to talk about results, about what is possible. They want to talk about principles, as if principles alone ever amounted to a pile of shit when they ran up against a political buzzsaw. They want to talk about will, in an exact parallel to the neocons' Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics. These people don't want half a loaf rather than none, they'd prefer no loaf and the continued opportunity to complain about not getting the whole loaf. About not having it handed to them on a plate, with a nice presentation, by people who will tell them they were correct from the start, that their preferred perfect result was their right to receive all along. Without any work or compromise on their part, because the fools believe that they don't need to do any political work to achieve what they want. If they did, they'd learn the limits of power and the value of compromise pretty fucking quick.

That's why when fools do venture into real-life politics they usually get immediately swallowed up by the hypocrisy machine, because being fools they lack all defenses. The rest avoid real-life politics at all costs: All they really want to do is complain about the moral failings of others. They disdainfully refer to Obama's strategy as "eleven dimensional chess" - inspired unfortunately by some Obama supporter who referred to it as "three dimensional chess", the game Spock plays in Star Trek - because they either can't or won't understand a kind of politics that isn't Manichean. These people are playing one-dimensional chess, an imaginary game of tug of war in which they are alone on the rope, heros in their own minds who are happiest to lose because that confirms their heroism. They're our equivalent of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists. Their view of the world is just a mirror image of the wingnuts. They're worse than useless, but fortunately they just stay at their keyboards and type, where they can do the least harm.

QOTD: Block That Image!

Alex Pareene at Gawker:

If K-Lo's boyfriend Mitt Romney was caught on video nailing an underaged Thai sex slave she'd probably find a way to make it Keith Olbermann's fault.

(Via Silver.)

In Joke

Atrios goes to work for the State Department.

Remember when the liberal blogosphere was about fun, stupid shit like who someone "really" was, rather than the boring, stupid shit like, "You hit me first! You're, like, way worse than a Republican!"

But McDonalds' Sales Are Up

The good news is I don't have to wait to get on a machine at the gym. The bad news is the gym is empty because people can't afford the membership fee anymore.

The Mid-Atlantic in June

Mushrooms growing on the sidewalk, 421 Pine St. Yeah, it's been raining kind of every day.

Local Programming: Drinking Liberally Center City Tonight 6-10 p.m.

Tuesday, June 16th
NOTE: This week only, DL Center City will not be meeting at the upstairs bar at Triumph. Check in at the host stand when you arrive to be directed to where we will meet.
Drinking Liberally Center City
6 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Triumph Brewing Co.
117 Chestnut St. (between Front and 2nd Streets)
Philadelphia, PA 19106.
$3 beers, $4 wine, $5 well drinks all night.
Happy hour food specials: $4 pizza app, half-price burgers.

Triumph Brewery is conveniently SEPTA-accessible via the Market-Frankford El (2nd Street station), all the buses that turn around at or near Penn's Landing (12, 17, 21, 33, 42, 48), and a few other buses that pass nearby (5, 25, 47, 57). Driving directions are here.

Send In Your Event Suggestions
Like all civic-minded liberals, we're here to promote democracy and citizen engagement in the political process, especially if there is beer involved. Whether it is or not, forward any area events for the week to the Philly DL organizer by Sunday to have them included in the weekly email.

Help Us Promote DL
Spread the word to your liberal friends to sign up for a group of like-minded people who get together every week to have fun and talk about what's happening in progressive politics right now. Please forward this email to those who might be interested in coming out and Drinking Liberally.

Hyperboles of the Day

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor says "President Obama's handling of the auto industry resembled the corrupt, oligarchic government of Vladimir Putin's Russia."

Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in an interview published yesterday, was quoted as saying "them Jews" wouldn't let him speak with Obama. Today, he clarified, saying he meant, "Zionists." No word on whether he corrected his grammar.

Talking about health care reform proposals in Green Bay today, Obama said reform was a "moral imperative." He also dismissed talk of "socialized medicine", but said "a single-payer system has some appeal."

More Uighurs Released

The 17 Uighurs held in Gitmo are innocent of any wrongdoing but have been imprisoned since 2001. In 2007, five Uighur detainees were released to Albania.  A couple of days ago the Obama administration announced that the nation of Palau had agreed to take in temporarily some or all of the Uighurs. And today, the Justice Department [sic] announced that the country of Bermuda has accepted four Uighurs for permanent resettlement.

QOTD: No True Scotsman

Without comment:

"The responsible white separatist community condemns this," he said. "It makes us look bad."

Pickin' and a Grinnin'

It's not that I mind, really. But someone explain to me how I got a hit from the HeeHaw website today in my referrer log. Please.

QOTD: "Actually not."

No particular reason except it's nice to remember something that turned out well:

Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning system (15:30:15): Caution terrain.

Skiles (15:30:16): Hundred and fifty knots.

Skiles (15:30:17): Got flaps two, you want more?

Sullenberger (15:30:19): No lets stay at two.

Sullenberger (15:30:21): Got any ideas?

Departure control (15:30:22): Cactus fifteen twenty nine if you can uh .... you got uh runway uh two nine available at Newark it'll be two o'clock and seven miles.

Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning system (15:30:23): Caution terrain.

Skiles (15:30:23): Actually not.

Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning system (15:30:24): Terrain terrain. Pull up. Pull up. ("pull up" repeats until the end of the recording).

Sullenberger (15:30:38): We're gonna brace.

Tiller's Clinic Closed for Good

More bad news:

For decades, the clinic located near a Wichita highway was a haven for women seeking late-term abortions and a target for abortion foes, who vilified clinic staff and patients. As recently as last month, vandals attacked the building.

But, with Tiller dead at the hand of a gunman who confronted him in a church lobby, the family decided the facility's doors will not reopen to patients and the sign will come down.

"Effective immediately, Women's Health Care Services, Inc., will be permanently closed," lawyers Dan Monnat and Lee Thompson announced in a statement e-mailed to reporters. ...

The shutting of Tiller's clinic reduces by one the handful of places in the United States where women could receive a late-term abortion. Lawyers for the family promised that patient files will be protected, but they offered no word about the future of the clinic's patients, or where they would be sent.

Looks like the professional and semi-pro Wichita protesters will have to get a life:

Dr. Tiller’s clinic was the one — the big one — [Operation Rescue President Troy] Newman had always hoped to close. Still, he said, if it closed now it would be no victory for Operation Rescue.

“Good God, do not close this abortion clinic for this reason,” he said. “Every kook in the world will get some notion.”

No shit. I think you already gave every kook in the world the notion.

Local Programming: Drinking Liberally Center City Tonight

Tuesday, June 9th
Drinking Liberally Center City
6 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Triumph Brewing Co.
117 Chestnut St. (between Front and 2nd Streets)
Philadelphia, PA 19106.
Meet at the upstairs bar.
$3 beers, $4 wine, $5 well drinks all night.
Happy hour food specials: $4 pizza app, half-price burgers.

Triumph Brewery is conveniently SEPTA-accessible via the Market-Frankford El (2nd Street station), all the buses that turn around at or near Penn's Landing (12, 17, 21, 33, 42, 48), and a few other buses that pass nearby (5, 25, 47, 57). Driving directions are here.

Tuesday, June 9th
Binge & Storytelling Night at Bob & Barbara's
After Drinking Liberally Center City, head over to Bob & Barbara's for "the special" and open-mic storytelling. Oral storytelling is one of the greatest and earliest gifts betrothed to our species. The second the earliest cavemen learned to talk, they started relating their experiences. "Man, did I ever tell you about that fucked up mammoth hunt when Og almost fell on his spear?"

Even with the countless communication outlets afforded to us today, modern society has fostered a sense of isolation. You might have a whole lot in common with that person sitting on the bar stool next to you, but unless you're in his Tweeter circle or visit his blog, you'll never know. We want to create a venue that provides a sense of community and allows everyone to share their lives in a physical, personal way. If we could build a camp fire in Bob and Barbaras, we would.
10 p.m. - ?
Bob & Barbara's
1509 South Street
Philadelphia, PA 19146

Send In Your Event Suggestions
Like all civic-minded liberals, we're here to promote democracy and citizen engagement in the political process, especially if there is beer involved. Whether it is or not, forward any area events for the week to the Philly DL organizer by Sunday to have them included in the weekly email.

Help Us Promote DL
Spread the word to your liberal friends to sign up for a group of like-minded people who get together every week to have fun and talk about what's happening in progressive politics right now. Please forward this email to those who might be interested in coming out and Drinking Liberally.

About Us
Drinking Liberally is a project of Living Liberally, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization which builds progressive community through social networks and events. Founded in 2003, Living Liberally has 332 chapters across the country. The Center City Philadelphia chapter of DL was started during the 2004 election and has met every Tuesday night since.

So, No More Cheesesteaks

Overheard at 8th & Chestnut:

"Right now, you're like a sponge. You don't want to turn into a blob."

The Weather in Philly Today

It's like this:

Obama Food Politics

I've actually had pizza from this place:

At the bustling Pi pizza restaurant in St. Louis, the staff has come up with a new mantra: "It's just pizza!"

Just pizza, and yet still, they marvel, customers are happy to wait well upward of two hours at peak time for a table. That is, ever since news came out that Barack Obama loved this pizza so much during a campaign stop, the owners were invited to recreate it in the White House ovens.

"We tell them it'll be two to four hours, and they say, OK!" says owner Chris Sommers, who traveled on his own dime to prepare the presidential meal in April. "This has been our own private stimulus package."

It was okay, but not great. Tastes differ, but there are also great political reasons for a politician trying to win in Missouri to say it offers one of his favorite dishes.

First Trial of Gitmo Captive in U.S.

Good move:

The Obama administration on Tuesday transferred its first Guantánamo detainee to U.S. soil by having U.S. marshals move a Tanzanian man from Guantánamo to New York City for trial on capital terror charges.

A predawn Justice Department statement said Ahmed Ghailani, about 35, was being housed in the Metropolitan Correction Center, a medium to maximum-security lockup in downtown Manhattan that has held everyone from alleged al Qaeda arch-terrorists to financier Bernard Madoff.

Ghaliani, born in Zanzibar and captured in Afghanistan, had been at a secret Super Max-style lock-up at the remote U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba for former CIA captives called Camp 7.

He faced arraignment in federal court later in the day as an alleged co-conspirator in the Aug. 7, 1998, U.S. Embassy bombings in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, that killed 234 people.

Okay, do that 200 more times and then we're done. Seriously, it will be more difficult than that, but at least this is a start.

Ambinder notes:

Notice the date that Ghailani arrived at Guantanamo: 2006 -- that's after the reign of enhanced interrogation techniques had ended...after the torture that extracted (lots of bogus information and some accurate information) from his fellow detainees was put to an end. There was plenty of collateral information about Ghailani's involvement in the embassy bombings, and so the decision to grant him an Article III trial was probably one of the easier calls the administration had to make.

That is, Ghailini probably wasn't tortured, so that won't hinder the admissibility of any incriminating statements he may have made.

It's Okay If You're a Cop

Police officers probably feel they more often get treated like shit than are given breaks, but when stuff like this happens, it just galls me:

Back in September 2006 -- with no lights or siren -- [New Jersey State Trooper] Robert Higbee ran a stop sign while in pursuit of a speeding suspect in Upper Township. 

Christina and Jacqueline Becker were on their way to buy milk, and happened to be in his path.

He was acquitted of vehicular homicide, which in New Jersey requires a showing that the person driving acted recklessly:

A person acts recklessly when (he/she) consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that death will result from (his/her) conduct. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that, considering the nature and purpose of the defendant's conduct and the circumstances known to (him/her), disregard of the risk involves a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a reasonable person would observe in the defendant's situation.

So, you're engaged in a high-speed pursuit, in this case doing 80 in a 35 mph zone, and you don't have your lights or siren on. And you end up killing two kids. In any comparable civilian circumstance, that driver would not only be going to prison, he'd be getting the max. But because this guy is a cop, he walks.

QOTD: Political Power Grows Out of the Barrel of a Gun.

Wichita:

“You can’t be pro-life and go around killing people, but some people are really mad at me for saying that,” he said.

"I Am The Government"

The judge who wrote this (which is funny but a pdf) turns out to be a power-mad drunk who sexually assaults his staff.

New Hampshire Legalizes Gay Marriage

Some good news for a bleak day.

Local Programming: Love Park, 5:30 p.m., Vigil for Dr. Tiller

YPP:

STAND UP FOR DR. TILLER, STAND UP FOR ABORTION
Tuesday, June 2, 5:30 pm, Love Park

WMF has received inquiries from pro-choice women and men asking what is going on in Philadelphia to mark the death of Dr. George Tiller. Join us as we gather to honor the work and memory of this courageous and principled man.

Those who have had abortions and are willing to be public about it are especially invited to speak. If you are interested, send your name to Tom Pich, [email protected].
-----------------------------------------------

Just 10 days ago WMF honored abortion clinic escorts for their courage. We screened "Silenced," an amazing short video that is now online. To honor Dr. Tiller's memory with a contribution to WMF, click here.