Putting Libby In Perspective

Yglesias nails it:

"Mark Kleiman seems to me to have the goods on this one:

• "If you had any doubt that the fuss about Libby's sentence is largely a matter of Washington insiders, political and journalistic, rallying to the defense of one of their own, consider the contrasting silence about the Siegelman case. A highly popular Democratic Governor of Alabama was indicted by a highly political U.S. Attorney's office, which is now seeking a thirty-year sentence. He was convicted of appointing someone to a state board that the same man had been appointed to by three previous governors, in return for a contribution in support of a referendum campaign.
  

"As Mark notes, rewarding campaign contributors with ambassadorships -- to say nothing of policy concessions -- is common. And the case seems at least a little fishy ("the fact that Siegelman was convicted of corruption in the course of fighting against Jack Abramoff, Abramoff's his Indian-gaming clients, and Abramoff's buddy, now the Governor of Alabama, may be merely ironic") on a few grounds. But even if there's nothing fishy about it, 30 years is a sentence for a vicious murderer, "And not a peep of protest from the Washington Post, which instead is running a non-stop campaign of whining about Scooter Libby's thirty months."


"As a sidebar, it's not even clear to me how Libby came to be a member of The Establishment in such good standing. I have it on good authority that he was in arrears on his dues to Temple Rodef Shalom before any of his legal troubles even started going down."

Greenwald and Thomas

A meeting of the minds.

File This One Under "Are You Kidding Me?"

Democrats and Republicans working together...to get a pay increase:

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite low approval ratings and hard feelings from last year's elections, Democrats and Republicans in the House are reaching out for an approximately $4,400 pay raise that would increase their salaries to almost $170,000.

"The cost-of-living raise endorsed Wednesday evening gets lawmakers back on track for automatic pay raises after a fight between the parties last year and again in January killed the pay increase due this year. That was the first interruption of the annual congressional pay boost in seven years."

Mayor Mike just called in. He wanted to tell Congress to "Get Real!" Hey Mike, simmer down over there. Only in Washington do people have the nuggets to ask for more money to do nothing. Well them and Roger Clemens. Well at least the Spice Girls are reuniting for a world tour. Now I feel MUCH better. Oy Vey.

Supreme Court Watch

Three cases decided.

Endgame

Bush won't supply subpoenaed documents in Attorney firings investigations. Does this come as a surprise? Is there anyone who doesn't know Bush's plan? Stall, stall, stall, and then leave office. By the time the case gets to the Supreme Court (where it will no doubt be tossed, the decision exiled to the 20th page of the NYTimes) Bush, Cheney and Rove will be lamping on a beach with Ken Lay and Tupac. If Congress really wants answers, and if the US really wants justice, then they have only one option. Impeach him now.

Diversity in the FDNY

Try to find a black fireman in New York City. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Still looking huh? Don't sweat it. In a city that has a, to say the least, healthy black population, blacks remains a measly 3% of NY's bravest. Finally there's a Justice Department lawsuit charging the FDNY for discrimatory practices. There's an excellent rundown on the problem in the NY Daily News about it, including some specific changes in policy that look as though they can benefit not only blacks but the entire city, ensuring that new hires will be more qualified than their predessors. It's worth the read.

And In Case You Were Wondering

Iraq is still a mess.

No Mike, Maybe You Need to "Get Real"

Amid warnings that the MTA is running at full or beyond capacity on many of their train lines, Mayor Mike tells NY to 'get real':

"Subway riders griping about crowded trains should "get real," Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday. Bloomberg said he takes the Lexington Ave. line most days and reports, "It's not crowded."


"So you have to stand up next to people," Bloomberg said during remarks at a Crain's New York Business breakfast in midtown. "Get real. This is New York."

"NYC Transit President Howard Roberts on Monday said that some lines are at or above capacity. At a news conference at City Hall, lawmakers said the mayor is out of touch with the crowding situation on the trains.

"He doesn't take it from Queens," said City Councilman David Weprin (D-Queens), referring to Bloomberg. "The F train on 179th St. is so overcrowded from Queens to Manhattan - it's ridiculous.""

Agreed. Rush hours is becoming insane in the city, rivaling the Tokyo. And adding more trains doesn't seem to be the solution. There might be a chance that putting more buses on the streets might eliminate the stress once the streets have been cleared of cars following the proposed car tax, but it's up in the air. Mike's being particularly bull headed here, but truly something does need to be done. NY has become incredibly overcrowded in the last couple of years and every avenue of downtown NY has become like the dance floor of Club Exit on a Saturday night, but attacking your critics doesn't make the problem go away.

Omen of Things To Come

It hasn't been so long that New Yorkers haven't forgotten about the last blackout to hit our city. In 2003 New York and parts of Canada were hit with the largest blackout in American history, a power outage that lasted nearly a full day for most sections, and longer for some out the outer regions. At that time Con Edison and their related energy companies claimed that the grid had been outdated and doomed to failure. It had been considered a National Security risk and that it would be taken care of.

Then last year was a blackout of Astoria, Queens that lasted most of July. That should have been a clue.

But it appears that our leadership has memories like gnats, as shown in yesterday's blackout that unfortunately, looks like an omen of things to come:

"A power failure zapped almost half a million people in Manhattan and the Bronx yesterday - causing gridlock, snarling subways, forcing evacuations and throwing doubt on Con Edison's ability to keep the juice flowing.


"The afternoon blackout - two days into the season's first run of 90-degree weather - lasted just 48 minutes."

As Con Ed CEO Kevin Burke gave a presentation us at a press conference with the Mayor on the energy saving capablities of using florescent lights, the power grid was collapsing, and no one knew why:

"The utility insisted yesterday's problem wasn't a replay - saying lightning may have hit a facility in Astoria, Queens, and tripped giant circuit breakers.


"The likelihood of this happening again is very low," said Con Ed CEO Kevin Burke, who said that despite the high temps, the system was running well below capacity.

"We don't think this event had anything to do with the level of electricity being used.""

Then what did cause it? That's really the question on every one's mind, and until it's answered, New Yorkers' doubts will continued to be validated.

UPDATE: Thousands still without power in upstate New York.

Banished

Note: This was written last week, so some of it might be dated.

In the years between the Civil War and the Great Depression, thousands of blacks were driven out of their homes by their white neighbors and many of these communities, to this day, remain exclusively white. The movie Banished, a documentary by filmmaker Marco Williams, recounts these events and follows the struggles of three black families in their attempts to receive some sort of justice from the towns that have prospered from their kin’s suffering.

This film is a stunning, emotional rollercoaster ride that will leave you frustrated, and angry. Every one should see this.

While there is some hope (many of the people who have brought these injustices to light were white) there is also overwhelming evidence that many of the strides we thought we have made in America were really fantasies. Harrison, Arkansas, a town where blacks were banished literally in a hail of bullets, is a current Klan strong hold, remains exclusively white, but is considered “one of the best places to live in America”. An elderly white man there, one of the hundreds who have decided to retire to Harrison, explains that he moved there because, “one, the price of living here is low and…two, there’s no niggers.” Yet at the same time the more liberal whites, who are attempting to change their town’s image, are clueless as to why blacks are scared to walk their streets. In one of the most intense moments of the film, one of the members of their “racial task force” (the group whites organized to make the town more inclusive) explains to them that the Klan isn’t the town’s problem; the problem is that “you make the Klan welcome here.” Silence fills the room.

The end of the film is a study in futility. As the black families try to find a least a recognition of the crimes committed against them, the city governments try every method to deny that the crimes occurred. There’s the legal method: Show us the deed to the land, they say, but who thought to grab deeds when the side of their homes were on fire, and bullets were streaming through their windows. There’s the “it wasn’t us” method: We weren’t born then, they say. Why should they be held responsible? And when all recourse fails then there’s the method of violence: The Klan shows up, rednecks carrying Confederate flags in one hand, bottles and two-by-fours in the other. The last shot of the film is a picture of the Washington monument and the message that of the thousands of blacks banished from their homes only four have received reparations, those four are all from one town: Rosewood, Florida.

So coming out of the movie I was really tempted to get into my fuck white people mode. But I quickly realized that that shit is too simple. Banishments to some extent have been going on everywhere on this planet, and it’s not ancient history. The Armenian genocide by the Turks, in 1915 kicked out and killed somewhere between 650,000 to 1.5 million Armenians. Turkey claims it never happened. There was the Bosnian genocide and displacement by the Serbs in 1992 that claimed almost 2 million people. The International Court of Justice in 2006 found Serbia not culpable. And then there’s Rwanda, Dafur.
And what about us? In 2003 the United States, based on fraudulent evidence, misinformation and lies, invaded Iraq. At a cost to us of over 400 billion dollars we now have almost 4,000 US troops and tens of thousands of Iraqi dead, their infrastructure collapsed, and a sectarian civil war that threatens to pop the Middle East like a zit. Will a filmmaker, some hundred years from now, document about how some Iraqi family is suing the US, because their home was bombed and now the US embassy, Halliburton facility, or Starbucks is built in its place?

Now I’m not going to make any friends with this next part, but screw it, I’m going to speak my mind.

And while all this shit, this perpetuation of the cycle of suffering and greed continues, I see Dip Set…Dip Setting, 50 rapping about window shopping while he’s slurping milkshakes with Mace, Pac-Man Jones is making it rain at clubs, Beyonce is still dancing in that ‘Get me Bodied’ video, and NYCKZ is still stylin on ‘em. Yeah, I’m pointing to some particular faces, but the actions of a few are endemic of the entire community of Hip-Hop, the majority of black superstars, and maybe black’s entire mindset. I spoke in my previous column about the lack of black vision, and yes there are pragmatic things we have to face such as education, health care, and the inequity of the prison system. But along with that comes a certain moral obligation to confront the specters of our past in a way that will not allow them to continue. I’m reminded of Chris Rock in Never Scared when he talks about America’s mentality after 9/11:

“At first it was fuck those Arabs, fuck those Arabs, and I was like ok. Then it was fuck those foreigners, fuck those foreigners, and I was like ok. And then it was fuck the Mexicans, fuck the Mexicans, and I was like, hold up, we knows what comes after that—the Jews and the blacks—that train is never late!”

When blacks allow these types of actions by the state to go ignored and unconfronted eventually it will come back on us. How much moral leverage can we possibly have in regards to our plights when we show such disregard to others who are either in the same situation or getting in that same situation, in the name of America? Or to make it even more basic, why should they care if we don’t? How can we ever get America to address the issues of wealth disparity in our community, when we prosper off of the oppression of others?

Look, I’m not Bill Cosby, and I’m sure as shit not going to put the responsibility of all this crap on the shoulders of the people most burdened and crippled by the oppressive policies of this country. But I am saying that we do have to shoulder some of the responsibility. We gotta get in the game. It’s the fourth quarter, ten seconds left, we’re on the five-yard line, and Michael Vick is running a dog fight in the basement of his mansion. We’ve grown up, we’ve gone to college and become global. If we hope to succeed in our quest for justice then we’ve got to choose a side. We have to step up or sit down. But be forewarned, usually the ones that are sitting down, are the first to get run over.

Class Wins

Elizabeth Edwards vs. Ann Coulter. How sweet it is.

They Eat Their Old

The Neo-Cons that is:

"It's the lingering divide within American conservatism, brought to vivid life by Johann Hari on the National Review Cruise:

"Aren't you embarrassed by the absence of these weapons?" Buckley snaps at Podhoretz. He has just explained that he supported the war reluctantly, because Dick Cheney convinced him Saddam Hussein had WMD primed to be fired. "No," Podhoretz replies. "As I say, they were shipped to Syria. During Gulf war one, the entire Iraqi air force was hidden in the deserts in Iran." He says he is "heartbroken" by this "rise of defeatism on the right." He adds, apropos of nothing, "There was nobody better than Don Rumsfeld. This defeatist talk only contributes to the impression we are losing, when I think we're winning."

"The audience cheers Podhoretz. The nuanced doubts of Bill Buckley leave them confused. Doesn't he sound like the liberal media? Later, over dinner, a tablemate from Denver calls Buckley "a coward." His wife nods and says, "Buckley's an old man," tapping her head with her finger to suggest dementia."

Block out the Sun; Burn the Poppy Fields Down

Remember the Matrix? Remember, in the back story told to Neo by Morpheus, how the humans, in their last gambit against the machines, blotted out the sun which was powering the machines? The gambit didn't work, but it bought them more time against a dangerous enemy.

Well it turns out that poppy seed production in Afghanistan, the root of heroin, is funding the Taliban, and this production has increased 49% from 05 to 06. If the US really wants to get serious about defeating the Taliban than a good place to begin is burning down those fields. Yes, doing such will probably decimate the Afghan economy, but the US doesn't seem to be too keen on rebuilding their economy to begin with, and isn't even going to begin to help until the Taliban are destroyed. So for the Afghan public they're between a rock and a hard place. The fact remains though that the Taliban will continue to be well funded as long as their poppy supply continues to increase.

Blow to Bush

A key Bush supporter in the Senate has publicly declared his dissatisfaction with Bush's game plan:

"WASHINGTON - Sen. Richard Lugar, a senior Republican and a reliable vote for President Bush on the war, said Monday that Bush's Iraq strategy was not working and that the United States should downsize the military's role.

"The unusually blunt assessment deals a political blow to Bush, who has relied heavily on GOP support to stave off anti-war legislation.

"It also comes as a surprise. Most Republicans have said they were willing to wait until September to see if Bush's recently ordered troop buildup in Iraq was working."

This isn't much of a surprise at the offices of the Word. The peoples confidence in Congress is dropping faster than the people's confidence in Bush, and with the June tally of US deaths rising rapidly, and stories like this popping up, the country is demanding immediate results. Furthermore, as the situation pops open, the ire of Musilms is slowly spreading over the Middle East, as Al-Qaida holds out a helping hand to Hamas. Big moves have to be made, and Iraq is not the place to make them.

Horrible

You know when I saw the story that Chris Benoit murdered his family and killed himself I would have sworn that it was a WWE stunt. Looks like I was wrong. This is a truly horrible event and my condolences go out to the whole extended Benoit family.

Bloomy Will Help Hil Against Giuliani

Look like CNN agrees with me.

Supreme Court Update

More coverage of the SC decisions here. Mithras' summation:

"Religion in government is good. Political contributions are good. Individual free speech is bad."

Sounds about right.

Double Down

Elizabeth Edwards picks up the slack for her husband by coming out for gay marriage. I say good for her, and even better for him, who by diffusion will get some credits from the gay community for having her on his side.

Meanwhile a transgendered woman falls on her sword for Obama.

No Bong Hits 4 Jesus

Two more Supreme Court rulings in, and both I find equally disturbing, especially in the vote which was drawn right across the conservative-liberal border.

First up was the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case, where the court found 5-4 that:

"Schools may prohibit student expression that can be interpreted as advocating drug use, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote..."

But here's the thing that rubs me wrong: though the event was school sponsored, the student who wrote the banner, 18 year old Joseph Frederick, was standing on a public side walk. Further more, while no one can deny that "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" is talking about drugs (most specifically, pot) it's debatable that the message 'advocates' drug use. If you were walking down the street and saw "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" on a wall, would you run out to buy pot? Here's the ironic thing about what happened: Before this all went down, alot of religious groups were supporting the Frederick because they wanted to defend his right to use religious terms in messages. This conservative ruling manages to slide past the whole religious aspect while limiting speech for students, while highlighting "drug use"as 'bad'. Wow, they got the whole trifecta.

But just in case you were thinking that the court wasn't going to strengthen religion this voting season then allow me to draw your attention to the courts 5-4 ruling that blocked a taxpayer law suit that would have allowed them to sue the Bush administration for funding Faith based groups:

"The taxpayers' group, the Freedom From Religion Foundation Inc., objected to government conferences in which administration officials encourage religious charities to apply for federal grants.

"Taxpayers in the case "set out a parade of horribles that they claim could occur" unless the court stopped the Bush administration initiative, wrote Justice Samuel Alito. "Of course, none of these things has happened."


"The justices' decision revolved around a 1968 Supreme Court ruling that enabled taxpayers to challenge government programs that promote religion.

"The 1968 decision involved the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which financed teaching and instructional materials in religious schools in low-income areas."

Let me reiterate, the court didn't actually judge the suit. They judged that these groups didn't have the right to sue the administration. I think Justice Souter dissent summed up my ire:

"The majority "closes the door on these taxpayers because the executive branch, and not the legislative branch, caused their injury," wrote Souter. "I see no basis for this distinction.""

I also wonder how this fits in with the idea of taxatation and representation. I'm not sure, but I believe this money is coming from the excucative and not the legislative, but it's still tax money. If that's so shouldn't tax payers have a right to question and object to how this money is allocated?

So to summarize what has the SC decided on today, if you're a student you can't say anything that talks about drugs, um, anywhere, and, if you pay taxes, you can't even sue the Bush administration. And both votes were right down party lines, where it will remain until the Justices die, the legacy of Bush.

Then again I'll defer to Cros for his final judgement. He like, knows law and stuff.

We're #1

Break out for foam finger; the US gives the most in '06 to chariable causes:

"NEW YORK (AP) -- Americans gave nearly $300 billion to charitable causes last year, setting a new record and besting the 2005 total that had been boosted by a surge in aid to victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma and the Asian tsunami...

"...according to a November 2006 comparison done by the Charities Aid Foundation. In philanthropic giving as a percentage of gross domestic product, the U.S. ranked first at 1.7 percent. No. 2 Britain gave 0.73 percent, while France, with a 0.14 percent rate, trailed such countries as South Africa, Singapore, Turkey and Germany."

You stay classy America.