Edgewise

Looting

Have you been watching Fox and Fox type TV this past couple of days? Their coverage of the looting is making me insane.

Poor people who've lost everything, even lost the city they were poor in, stealing food, stealing clothes, stealing TVs, I really don't care. Who are we to judge them? Who is the hell is Fox News to judge them? People hurting people, mugging people, gun fire -- that I care about. Getting people out of town, rescuing people trapped in hospitals, trapped in projects, figuring out what to do with hundreds of thousands of refugees, rebuilding the city, that I care about

But good God. People stealing food, stealing clothes, stealing TVs, while New Orleans and Gulfport lie in ruins? That really is the least of our damn worries right now.

Yes, I get sophomoric when I vent.

President Bush has announced his first priority response to the disaster in New Orleans has been to head off flooding in all major waterways surrounding Crawford, Texas. "We are not about to fall back into a passive, reactive, defensive strategy on this. If we do not fight flooding in Crawford today, we will be fighting it in New Orleans tomorrow."

Bush pointed to a sharp decline in population density in the New Orleans area in recent days as a sign that the threat there was diminishing. "The is a very positive sign, a milestone." However, "There is still a lot of hard work to be done, before the process is complete."

Today, on the heels of his success against Crawford flooding, Bush is shifting location to tackle the crisis in New Orleans itself, or possibly in Washington, or in other appropriate vital locations--despite the fact that emergency-response units in these areas are not even equipped with the same model of bicycle on which Mr. Bush has qualified in the course of his training.

Bush has not actually been seen in any of those places, however there are official records of his having kept a dental appointment "directly in the very heart of some very same vicinity."

The President refused to set a date on when his long, strategically planned vacation might end, saying that information would only give encouragement to the flooding, disease, and economic hardship we are suffering, and would send absolutely the wrong message that these problems are seriously impacting us.

"Indeed, I have no information to indicate that any of these conditions have actually had any substantial impact on us at all, based on what I have seen personally, nor from the high-level daily briefings I receive--briefings which he emphasized were maintained "without fail, every single day," even during the most intense periods of vacation.

Action Movies--History of Advanced Fighting Techniques

As far back as Blade Runner it was already well established that the fastest way to cross a room was by a sequence of rapidly repeated back flips. Bit it was only in the Matrix films we learned that bullets cannot harm you as long as you are engaged in tumbling exercises of any kind.

The Course

"...the Americans, who have already expressed their frustration with the Sunnis, have recently become irritated with what they regard as the stubbornness of the Shiites as well." NYT, 8/26/05

I can't understand this criticism. Each of the three Iraqi factions is doing its utmost to emulate the American model. They are Staying the Course and they are Not Cutting and Running. These are the things they owe to the mourned sacrifices of their dead, respectively.

If we can succeed in planting the seeds of a new intransigence in Iraq, it could launch a widening revolution of intransigence throughout the entire Middle-East and, hopefully, in the hearts of all people throughout the world.

I'm joining a think tank

I've accepted a nonspecific invitation from The Editors to become a senior fellow at the Poor Man Institute for Freedom and Democracy and a Pony.

I've chosen the following appointment:

[T]he J. Calvin Coolidge Freedom Antimacassar for the Analysis of Terrorism Foundations and National Liberty Councils of the Centers for Defense of Foreign National-Security Policy Affairs

It was bound to happen

In an administration that considers the press a special interest and likes to take their message directly to the people, it was inevitable that eventually President Bush would start his own blog.

Can't tell the Plamers without a scorecard

Think Progress has helpfully assempled a dossier listing 21 Administration Officials Involved In Plame Leak and detailing what we know about them, whether they've been interviewed by prosecutors or the grand jury (as far as we know), and what they've said on the record so far.

Got (moooo) Smog?

A curious editorial in the Sunday New York Times points out that California's agricultural heartland may be at the heart of an air pollution crisis that could require regulation of cow emissions as well as car emissions. It seems that the mammoth dairy farms of the San Joaquin Valley--where about twenty percent of the nation's milk comes from-- are emiting about 19 pounds of pollution per cow per year. Add that by 1.7 million dairy cows (in all, there are 5.2 million cattle and calves in the state) and you've got a lot of bad gas. Dairy farmers disagree that their cows are contributing to air pollution. And they have political clout; the state's biggest industry is agriculture and the top-earning commodity is "milk and cream", earning them well over $4 billion annually.

The other major air polluter in California also happens to have a lot of political clout. Although the state has managed to enforce the strictest vehicle emissions laws in the country, the rising numbers of vehicles and particularly the rising numbers of SUVs--which do not have to meet the same pollution emission standards as other passenger cars--means the state is losing the battle against air pollution.

Recently, Bay Area residents, who have some of the least polluted air in the state, have been required to meet the more stringent smog standards of more polluted regions (e.g. the San Joaguin Valley). That means this year when I renew the vehicle registration on my 1988 Toyota Tercel I must take the old jalopy to a "test only" smog station where I'll probably be told that the old gal (EVE294) doesn't pass the test.

A reasonable solution to this dilemma might be to purchase a new SUV...or I could try to disguise the Toyota as a cow.

Mannish boy

Saw this somewhere today - it's sad but not entirely surprising (Masculinity Challenged, Men Prefer War and SUVs):

Men whose masculinity is challenged become more inclined to support war or buy an SUV, a new study finds.

Their attitudes against gays change, too.

Cornell University researcher Robb Willer used a survey to sample undergraduates. Participants were randomly assigned feedback that indicated their responses were either masculine of feminine.

The women had no discernable reaction to either type of feedback in a follow-up survey.

But the guys' reactions were "strongly affected," Willer said today.

"I found that if you made men more insecure about their masculinity, they displayed more homophobic attitudes, tended to support the Iraq war more and would be more willing to purchase an SUV over another type of vehicle," said Willer said. "There were no increases [in desire] for other types of cars."

Those who had their masculinity threatened also said they felt more ashamed, guilty, upset and hostile than those whose masculinity was confirmed, he said.

Remembering what America stands for

I'm reprinting this report from the AP in full:

U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour's comments during Wednesday's sentencing hearing for Ahmed Ressam, as provided by court officials.

Ressam, an Algerian national, was sentenced to 22 years for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium.

---

"Okay. Let me say a few things. First of all, it will come as no surprise to anybody that this sentencing is one that I have struggled with a great deal, more than any other sentencing that I've had in the 24 years I've been on the bench.

"I've done my very best to arrive at a period of confinement that appropriately recognizes the severity of the intended offense, but also recognizes the practicalities of the parties' positions before trial and the cooperation of Mr. Ressam, even though it did terminate prematurely.

"The message I would hope to convey in today's sentencing is twofold:

"First, that we have the resolve in this country to deal with the subject of terrorism and people who engage in it should be prepared to sacrifice a major portion of their life in confinement.

"Secondly, though, I would like to convey the message that our system works. We did not need to use a secret military tribunal, or detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant, or deny him the right to counsel, or invoke any proceedings beyond those guaranteed by or contrary to the United States Constitution.

"I would suggest that the message to the world from today's sentencing is that our courts have not abandoned our commitment to the ideals that set our nation apart. We can deal with the threats to our national security without denying the accused fundamental constitutional protections.

"Despite the fact that Mr. Ressam is not an American citizen and despite the fact that he entered this country intent upon killing American citizens, he received an effective, vigorous defense, and the opportunity to have his guilt or innocence determined by a jury of 12 ordinary citizens.

"Most importantly, all of this occurred in the sunlight of a public trial. There were no secret proceedings, no indefinite detention, no denial of counsel.

"The tragedy of September 11th shook our sense of security and made us realize that we, too, are vulnerable to acts of terrorism.

"Unfortunately, some believe that this threat renders our Constitution obsolete. This is a Constitution for which men and women have died and continue to die and which has made us a model among nations. If that view is allowed to prevail, the terrorists will have won.

"It is my sworn duty, and as long as there is breath in my body I'll perform it, to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. We will be in recess."

Testify.

Legal complaint v. Sensenbrenner

saw this on the Well: