Fables of the reconstruction

Local Programming: Drinking Coffee Liberally in Mt. Airy Tomorrow

Sunday, February 28th, 12:30-2:30 p.m.
Drinking (Coffee) Liberally Mt. Airy
Mt. Airy Drinking Liberally meets every Sunday at Infusion Coffee + Tea (7133 Germantown Ave.), from 12:30 until 2:30 PM.

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 347 chapters across the country. The Center City Philadelphia chapter of DL was started during the 2004 election and has met every Tuesday night since.

No Wonder It's Dark

(Via Cyn.)

Haitian Christians Stone Voodoo Worshippers Holding Ceremony

Pictures here.

Sen. Dodd's Proposed Constitutional Amendment to Overturn Citizens United Goes Way Too Far

I was really curious when I saw Dan Tokaji's blurb that Chris Dodd had introduced a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision. (See here, here, here and here.) I wondered how Dodd would handle the balance between free speech and maintaining the integrity of elections. I got quite a shock:

SECTION 1. Congress shall have power to regulate the raising and spending of money with respect to Federal elections, including through setting limits on (1) the amount of contributions to candidates for nomination for election to, or for election to, Federal office; and (2) the amount of expenditures that may be made by, in support of, or in opposition to such candidates.

SECTION 2. A State shall have power to regulate the raising and spending of money with respect to State elections, including through setting limits on (1) the amount of contributions to candidates for nomination for election to, or for election to, State office; and (2) the amount of expenditures that may be made by, in support of, or in opposition to such candidates.

SECTION 3. Congress shall have power to implement and enforce this article by appropriate legislation..

This amendment, if adopted, would mean that Congress and the states would have unchecked power to regulate "the amount of expenditures that may be made ... in support of or in opposition to" a candidate by anyone. That language doesn't apply to just corporations, it applies to real people.

The power it grants to government is ludicrously over-broad. As written, the amendment would allow the government to completely ban all election-related speech that involved an expenditure of money, such as operating a blog or printing leaflets. In fact, the government could ban all election-related fundraising, meaning that it could prohibit you from even soliciting donations for your favorite advocacy organization.

The net effect of this amendment is not to overturn Citizens United; it's to overturn every campaign-finance decision on the books and replace it with absolute governmental authority over election-related speech. I'm appalled that Sen. Dodd would even have proposed it. No one in their right mind should support it.

Text Me, Email if Text is Too Short, Don't Call Unless Someone's Dead, And For Fuck's Sake Don't Leave Me a Voicemail No Matter What

1o Reasons to Avoid Talking on the Phone.

Pennsylvania Appellate Court Overturns Anti-Gay Precedent in Child Custody Case

Good:

A Pennsylvania appellate court has rejected a 25-year-old legal precedent and ruled that a parent's homosexual relationship cannot be used against the parent in determining child custody. ...

It also reversed the lower-court ruling that awarded the father primary custody of their daughter, and granted the appeal of the mother, who is gay, to continue shared custody.

In doing so, the judges overruled a 1985 Superior Court decision that said a parent must prove that his or her gay relationship is not detrimental to the child.

That presumption "is based upon unsupported preconceptions and prejudices - including that the sexual orientation of a parent will have an adverse effect on the child, and that the traditional heterosexual household is superior to that of the household of a parent involved in a same sex relationship," Judge Christine Donohue wrote in the Jan. 21 opinion.

[The 1985 ruling that was overturned rejected the idea that a] "homosexual relationship could ever be the equal of the traditional family as a suitable family arrangement, and indicated that it was 'inconceivable' that a child could be exposed to a homosexual relationship 'and not suffer some emotional disturbance, perhaps severe,' " Donohue wrote.

Lower Merion School District Family That's Suing Has Litigious, Debt-Ridden History

This is a lot of inadmissible evidence with a couple of exceptions:

[The Robbins family] lived in a $986,000 house on the Main Line. [Mr. Robbins], until recently, had earned well more than $100,000 per year. Yet he and his wife were in hock to creditors, ranging from Uncle Sam to their former synagogue - and had regularly been stiffing Peco Energy for five years, breaking payment plan after payment plan.

They repeatedly appealed "unpaid electric and gas bills that by last year were closing in on $30,000" to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. It was the second largest unpaid utility bill in Peco history. They paid off half of it just last week.

In addition to the Peco debt, the PUC noted, the Robbinses had been hit with numerous civil judgments in recent years totaling more than $365,000.

They're into the IRS for $62,692. Even their current lawyer has had to sue them for payment in the past.

[I]t was the apparent failure to pay a fee - a $55 insurance payment to permit the Robbinses' son Blake to take his laptop home from Harriton High School - that might have prompted the district to activate the Web cam.

Ah. That doesn't change the legal issues surrounding (a) not notifying parents and students of the monitoring or (b) whether Harriton High officials used the picture taken for disciplinary purposes outside of the authorized removal of the laptop. But, if true, it could dispose of the accusation that the camera was turned on simply to monitor student behavior.

So, they're spendthrifts with a sense of entitlement seeking to hit a jackpot suing their son's high school, right? Maybe, maybe not. Mr. Robbins' is also suing his former employer for unpaid commissions - he was a salesman - of $5 million. It's possible that the claim is bogus and just of a piece with the rest. It's also possible that the employer really did screw him and the family's distressed state is the result of that, and it has nothing to do with the lawsuit against Lower Merion School District. The problem with the second version is that they racked up their debts well before Mr. Robbins lost his old job.

If there is no objective evidence that the school officials were using the picture for disciplinary purposes and it comes down to the family's testimony versus the vice principal's, then I think the existence of the debts could be used to impeach the Robbinses' credibility. However, the core of the case is that the monitoring program existed and was used without notification. None of these revelations affects that issue, as far as I can tell.

12.5"

Fuck.

 

Fuck.

The storm is forecast to become a potent and peculiar nor'easter that will become a "bomb" off the Jersey coast. It will take a bizarre path, paralleling the coast and then jogging inland near New York City and remaining stationary.

"I haven't seen anything like it," said Greg Heavener, a meteorologist at the weather service's Mount Holly office.

When the storm peaks later tomorrow and tomorrow night, it is expected to hammer the region with long-lasting and powerful winds, with gusts up to 50 m.p.h. not out of the question, said Henry Margusity, a meteorologist with Accu-Weather Inc.

So What's Up in Lower Merion School District?

Jeffrey Billman at the clog:

Matsko may well be scapegoated here; I don't mean to imply that she did something shady, because I really have no idea what's going on. I mean, seriously: No school official could be cavalier or dumb enough to think they could spy on kids and no one would ever be the wiser, right? I doubt it.  But these stories aren't adding up. If the school district can come out and say that Blake Robbins is lying, why hasn't it done so? In lawsuits, people categorically deny charges all the time; it's not unusual or improper.

My take is that the school district, which is the actual defendant in the case, doesn't know what its employees at Harriton High did or did not do. So the district can't issue an unequivocal denial until it finds out the truth. But the employees in question - like Matsko - are probably lawyering up themselves and trying to keep themselves from being sued or imprisoned (since there may have been multiple felonies committed here). And the school district doesn't want to cut Matsko and friends loose too soon, because (a) that's a tacit admission of culpability that the district will ultimately be financially responsible for and (b) if they ax Matsko and it turns out she's innocent, then she can sue them.  So they wait for discovery to roll out, and see what people say when they're under oath.

My total guess is that Matsko is lying through her teeth in a last-ditch attempt to brazen it out. Her passionate performance reading a prepared statement made me think, "The lady doth protest too much."

Cheez Whiz

Jim's Steaks, 10 p.m.

Local Programming: Drinking Liberally Center City Tonight @ Triumph Brewing

Tuesday, February 23rd, 6 - 9 p.m.
Drinking Liberally Center City
Center City DL meets from 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. every Tuesday at the downstairs platform bar of Triumph Brewing Co., located at 117 Chestnut St. (between Front and 2nd Streets), Philadelphia, PA 19106. There are $3 beers, $4 wine, $5 well drinks all night as well as happy hour food specials including half-price burgers. Triumph Brewery is conveniently SEPTA-accessible.

Join the Shooting Liberally Philadelphia Facebook Group
Like shooting or want to learn how to handle a gun? Shooting Liberally Philly meets about once a month to shoot at a center city range. Sign up for the Facebook group here to get announcements about future events, see pictures from prior outings, and participate in the discussion.

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 347 chapters across the country. The Center City Philadelphia chapter of DL was started during the 2004 election and has met every Tuesday night since.

Earth Tones and Teleprompters

The point of rightwing zombie lies like "Obama can't talk without a teleprompter" (despite vivid evidence to the contrary) is, as Duncan says, to provide a hook for "journalists" to base their stories on. But to be effective, the lie has to join up with some widely-accepted public perception of the person being lied about. In Al Gore's case, people were prepared to believe that he was a wimpy tree-hugger who had to consult with a woman on what clothes to wear. But what are the rightwingers trying to say about Obama? That he's not as smart as he seems? Or that he's inauthentic, scripted, rigid? Maybe both. Look for clues in future lies and talking points.

So Real It's Fake

If you had asked me how much of the outdoor shots on TV were faked, I wouldn't have guessed 100%:

Dirty Fucking Hippie Field Trip

A bunch of liberal bloggers met with Biden's chief economist at the White House to talk about the stimulus. Looking at this picture closely, I had to laugh:

Which one of these things is not like the other? Answer under the cut. 

Philly-Area School District Remotely Activating Webcams to Spy on Students at Home

This is almost too bad to be believed:

According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools' administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families. The issue came to light when the Robbins's child was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all students issued with these machines.

According to the complaint (pdf), the district has issued a laptop to all students and never informed them that the webcams could be activated remotely. The suit alleges violations of state and federal law. This is a civil suit, but wiretapping is also a crime under both state and federal law. If the allegations are true, someone's going to jail.

Seems Like a Lot of Effort to Kill One Guy

Back on January 19th, a senior Hamas leader went to Dubai and was found dead in his hotel room within a few hours of arriving in the country. Those are the agreed-upon facts. Everything else is disputed.

Dubai's police chief says that an 11-person assassination team killed him and that there is surveillance video showing them in action. (Nothing graphic.) Assuming that's what they are, it's pretty interesting to see these people walking around trying to act normally before, during and after the murder. The extraordinary thing is how ordinary they are.

The cause of death varies, depending on who you believe.  Shooting, electrocution, poisoning and suffocation are all mentioned.  

The victim is said to have a security detail but they were left behind because there wasn't enough room on the plane. And Dubai apparently didn't have anyone to cover him. That's just weird if he is who they say he is.

The assassins - if that's what they were - traveled mainly on British and Irish passports. Several of the passports were in the names of British citizens who live in Israel. That plus the fact the victim was Hamas clearly suggests a Mossad operation. Indeed, Israelis were initially cheering the Mossad chief when the murder first occurred. But now since the video came out and the allegation of the forged British and Irish passports was released, not so much:

The initial nods, winks and pats on the back here over the assassination last month of a senior Hamas official in Dubai are turning to puzzlement and concern as mounting evidence, including extensive surveillance footage, points to a remarkably clumsy operation many Israelis deem unworthy of their intelligence service, Mossad. 

It's remarkable to me that the Israeli public is portrayed as only being concerned that the killers were clumsy. My guess is that this is just a case of people believing their own hype. Mossad agents aren't superheroes. In any country that had as many CCTVs as Dubai apparently has, you'd end up with pretty good video of an operation like this. They had to have figured burning all those operatives was an acceptable loss given the objective. Assuming any of this is true.

Nostalgia

In a webcomic on the decline of Internet Explorer:

I Don't Get Today's xkcd

A geek joke translation service: Explain xkcd.

Legislator Wants to Abolish Precedent

A member of the Iowa legislature, Jason Schultz, has introduced a bill:

A judicial officer shall not use judicial precedent, case law, penumbras, or international law as a basis for rulings. A judicial officer shall only use the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Iowa, and the Code of Iowa as the basis for any ruling issued by such judicial officer. The only source material that may be used for interpreting the Constitution of the United States by a judicial officer in this state shall be the Federalist papers and other writings of the founding fathers to describe the intent of the founding fathers, and if such source material is used, the full context of the source material must be used by the judicial officer.

This fails for both legal and common sense reasons. First of all, application of the Supremacy Clause prohibits states from interpreting the federal constitution in any way that contradicts the interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court or the applicable Circuit Court of Appeals. (The same goes for federal statutes, which Schultz's bill neglects to mention at all.) This bill implicitly makes an absolute claim of state sovereignty and denial of the authority of the U.S. government.  It amounts to a declaration of secession.

Secondly, due process under both the Iowa and U.S. constitutions requires that precedent have legal weight, at least in criminal matters. If a state supreme court rules on the interpretation of a criminal law, then people in that state must be entitled to rely on that ruling in guiding their own behavior. Schultz's bill, which is nominally about making judicial decision-making less variable, actually would have the opposite effect: Every judge who considered a statute would be required to decide what that statute meant de novo. No one could ever be truly sure was legal and illegal.

Which brings us to the common sense objection: Who makes decisions like this? Who reinvents the wheel every time an issue arises? It's idiotic to not consider what other people thought about any complex problem in the past when you approach a similar question. It's essentially mandated stupidity.

I know it's nutpicking, but look at the size of that nut. It's pretty big.

South Carolina Requires "Subversives" to Pay $5 Registration Fee

No, really:

Terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now register with South Carolina's Secretary of State and declare their intentions -- or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.

I disagree with the article when it says that this statute is "redundant" with current laws against terrorism. Advocating mass murder is not the same as committing it - advocating it is protected free speech. The article equates the law with those which imposes a tax on the proceeds of crime, but again, one has to commit a crime to profit from it. This statute is unconstitutional on its face.

While clearly aimed at brown people, the article raises the obvious question:

While the intention of the law is apparently aimed at Islamic terrorists, it's unclear in the law's wording whether it can be applied to right-wing militias, some of whom have reputedly called for the overthrow of the US government. The law states that "fraternal" and "patriotic" groups are exempt from the law, but only if they don't "contemplate the overthrow of the government."

To the extent there is any enforcement of this statute, I think it will be held to be unconstitutional as applied, because Tea Party types calling for the unconstitutional removal of Obama from office will tacitly be exempted from it.

I tend to agree with this:

"In the long and storied history of utterly retarded legislation in South Carolina, we may have finally found the legal statute that takes the cake for sheer stupidity, which we think you’ll agree is saying something."

(Via.)

D.A. Seth Williams Charges Philly Cop With Murder

Well, I was wrong. When he was sworn in last month, I predicted that the new Philadelphia District Attorney, Seth Williams, would not charge police officer Frank Tepper with murder. Yesterday, he did:

This morning, Williams said Tepper had been charged on a review of the evidence.

"The public demands that we apply the same standard of justice to every case regardless of the status of the victim or the defendant. And I have imposed that standard in this case," Williams said.

In addition to murder, Tepper is also charged with possession of an instrument of crime and recklessly endangering another person, Williams said.

Williams said that a grand jury indictment wasn't necessary. Good for him. (Also, smart of him to announce this while the city was in the grip of a state of emergency resulting from the snowstorm.) The police union head chief did not criticize the move. Williams must have squared them first.

This is not to say that all is well in Philly. A few of the factors that may have played into this decision: Tepper was off-duty. Tepper was visibly intoxicated. The cop and victim are white. The victim's community made an issue of it. Another similar case, with a black off-duty cop and black victim shot in the back, is in the pipeline. We shall see.

Congressman Murtha Dead

Per the radio.

The Shit I Miss

I was busy this weekend, and:

Seriously?

America Wins

The Tebows, Mannings and Bushes lose. All is right with the world.

Protégez-vous

(Via my friend Gloria.)

Local Programming: Drinking Coffee Liberally + Super Bowl Party at Triumph

Sunday, February 7th
12:30-2:30 p.m.
Drinking (Coffee) Liberally Mt. Airy
Mt. Airy Drinking Liberally meets every Sunday at Infusion Coffee + Tea (7133 Germantown Ave.), from 12:30 until 2:30 PM.

6 - 10 p.m.
Drinking Liberally Super Bowl XLIV Party at Triumph Sunday Evening
Come join us at Triumph Brewing to watch the big game between the Colts and the Saints. We'll start around 6 p.m., kickoff is 6:30 p.m.

Local Programming: Philly for Change Monthly Meeting Tonight at 7 p.m.

Wednesday, February 3rd, 7 - 9 p.m.
Philly for Change February Meetup
Philly for Change is the place to meet new and old activists and citizens in Philadelphia who want to make progressive change. Our regular monthly meetings are held on the first Wednesday of the month at 7:00 PM. We hold our MeetUp at Tritone, a bar located at 1515 South Street. Tritone has a full dinner menu and is easy to access for people with disabilities with a ramp, instead of stairs, at the entrance.

Turns Out, It Was Anti-Semites

The guy who commissioned the theft of the Auschwitz sign is a Swedish neo-Nazi. The Poles who stole the sign for him say they were just following orders.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Want to Know

Thoreau at High Clearing:

The Defense Secretary and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are asking Congress to allow gays and lesbians to serve openly. The biggest stumbling block at this point is a fear that if the draft is ever re-instated this policy would make Republican Congressmen and televangelists draft-eligible.

(Via Frank.)

Don't You Worry Your Pretty Little Head

Messaging, people. Messaging:

"Women sometimes need a little more handholding, or they need their friends to help them make a decision. And by our going in and talking to them and recruiting and educating and training them to either get involved in a campaign or become a candidate, we're giving them the tools so that they can do that on their own," [Republican National Committee co-chair Jan] Larimer added.

Why not just have a big strong GOP Daddy tell them what to do? Chicks dig that.

(Via Unstable Isotope.)

Afghanization

Via Joshua Foust, a reaction to a 60 Minutes piece on U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan:

When you live behind walls everything on the other side of those walls is a threat. When you isolate your forces from the population you are supposed to “protect,” then your forces have no ability to distinguish friend from foe, threat from normal routine, the good from the bad. Gen McChrystal can gob on all he wants about the importance of “COIN” and getting to know the people blah blah blah …. it doesn’t matter because he sets the operational rules here, and under his rules no conventional American troops can leave a FOB unless they have at least four MRAPS and 16 riflemen. How are you supposed to “protect the people” if you can only roll around in large road-bound convoys? How can you “protect the people,” if every night all your people have to be back on the big box FOB’s eating ice cream and pecan pie?

These SF guys are supposed to be the ones who know how to operate outside the big bases with the local population, but did you notice where they live? On a big box FOB, isolated and removed from their Afghan charges which is obvious, because none of them spoke a word of Dari or Pashto. ... They will never be able to gain the situational awareness required to do real COIN if they remain confined to the Big Box FOBs. That is the real story and as usual the MSM missed it.

(Links added for the military-acronym-impaired.)

Shades of another conflict I have read about. The author of the post is a military contractor and former regular U.S. Army infantryman, so animosity toward Special Forces is to be expected. But the point is: You can't win "hearts and minds" if you're safe and secure on your heavily-guarded base every night, but walking out among the population also means you will take a lot of casualties. The American public doesn't tolerate such losses as part of long conflicts with nebulous objectives and no clear-cut end. So, if you want to maintain political support for the war, then you can't actually use the strategy you have ordered.

This disconnect plays itself out at the small unit level, where in direct contradiction of COIN policy individual soldiers express contempt for the people, fail to acquire any local knowledge or language skills, and do things like shoot at vehicles carrying kids that don't represent any kind of threat. At best, you spend a hellish amount of money just treading water while you pray something happens that will allow you to leave without admitting you failed. At worst, what happens if that the situation deteriorates, the opposition kicks the ass of the indigenous force you just trained, your failure is obvious to everyone, and you're back to square one.

Tuesday Hopeless Optimism

Playing For Change: Song Around the World "Stand By Me" from Playing For Change on Vimeo.

(Via Sheila B. Scheuerman at TortsProf Blog.)

Local Programming: Drinking Liberally Center City Tonight 6-9 p.m.

Tuesday, February 2nd
6 - 9 p.m.
Drinking Liberally Center City
Center City DL meets from 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. every Tuesday in the upstairs bar of Triumph Brewing Co., located at 117 Chestnut St. (between Front and 2nd Streets), Philadelphia, PA 19106. There are $3 beers, $4 wine, $5 well drinks all night as well as happy hour food specials including 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.

Ever Thought About Running for Office? Training on How to Run for Committee Person February 11th
Ever thought about running for office? Now is your chance. In Philadelphia there are over 6,700 local elected positions called "committee people" on the ballot on May 18th. Click here to download the Committee of Seventy's newly released "How to Run for Committee Person" manual. What is a committee person? Each of the city’s 1,684 voting divisions is represented by up to two Democratic and two Republican committee people. They register voters,"get out the vote," give rides to the polls, elect the ward leaders and work year-round on community issues.

Join the Committee of Seventy on Thursday, February 11th at 6:00 pm for a free "How to Run for Committee Person” candidate training at their office located at Eight Penn Center, 1628 JFK Boulevard, Suite 1002, Philadelphia, PA 19103. The training session is free of charge and all are welcome to attend. The Committee of Seventy is also partnering with groups across the city that are interested in informing their membership about this opportunity. If you or your organization is interested in an informational session or candidate training, contact Leah Pillsbury, Director of Civic Programs, [email protected] or 215-557-3600 ext 109.

Join the Shooting Liberally Philadelphia Facebook Group
Like shooting or want to learn how to handle a gun? Shooting Liberally Philly meets about once a month to shoot at a center city range. Sign up for the Facebook group here to get announcements about future events, see pictures from prior outings, and participate in the discussion.

Center City DL Facebook group.
Philly DL Flickr group.
Shooting Liberally Philly Facebook group.

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 342 chapters across the country. The Center City Philadelphia chapter of DL was started during the 2004 election and has met every Tuesday night since.

I-95 2010: May 2

Save the date.

What Cole Said

This:

I honestly have no patience to read through months of the insane scribblings of some PUMA nitwit to figure this all out, so I will just stick with what I know- Kevin K. is a solid dude and anything he needs, I will help him.

There seems to have been a new outbreak of panty-sniffing on the right the last few weeks. Some of the usual suspects in the Malkinverse were all worked up about some jackass writing letters to newspapers and decided to put on their sleuthing hats and out him. Nothing gets the amateur detective shut-ins in the right blogosphere harder than posting a screenshot publicly avaliable information and then patting themselves on the back about their investigative prowess.

As angry as I ever get about the right, it never occurs to me to try to go after their families. 

But did you know that Mithras is the god of Light? It's true.