There is nothing, *nothing* that is "funny" nor "entertaining" nor easily dismissed, about the act of torture. Ever.

This is not hard for civilized people to understand. And religious people, too. Their sacred texts agree. And decent atheists, and humanists, and people who love children, or care for the weak and helpless. Or have been such.

I am likely too "serious" for this business, but I feel all my Divinity School training coming forth, as well as my personal experience as an abuse survivor. Please, stop the jokes and foolish dismissals of the American, and indeed all, record of "approved" methods of torture. As they say, 'you don't know it's not funny until it happens to you." Just stop it. And stop excusing it.

This extends not only to the current and past administrations, but all those who would make a joke of child-rape, or electrocution, or any of the other humiliations and tortures of those who are the subject of current discussion, regardless of how well they suit the purpose of casual snarking. It's disgusting. Inhumane. And most of all, something that will rebound ten-fold upon those who treat it casually, if that is the only thing that motivates. Yes, it can happen to you. And I promise you, you won't laugh when it does.

I'm only able to write part one tonight, more later. Gosh, Obama pissed me off today ["clean" internet users: skim down to the end for the non-DFH related point to this post].Yes, that's not new, and no news to this blog. Ironically, he did so on one of those verboten issues that "stains" bloggers like me just by their very mention: he giggled at the idea, put forth by lots of 'reglar' folks at one of his outreach websites/media tools, that marijuana normalization is Serious. Worse, he slurred the online political community in the process, furthering the meme that all of us who write, speak, read and think about policy with online tools are Dirty Fucking Hippies and Hopheads. You know, not like Real Americans, such as the Two Wetsuits Good guy, or Senator Diapers 'n' Hookers.

I guess I don't write about pot policy more because to me, it's beyond obvious. Everything that our government does with respect to pot is ass-backwards. It's racist, expensive, wasteful, hypocritical, stupid, anti-environmental, supportive of terrorism, and a lost cause. I assume that all thinking people more or less agree with me, or at least admit that research, science, the history of policy, and the example of other nations, pro and con, back that up. It annoys me how many "progressives" and liberals remain silent, in this period in which we make all the mistakes of alcohol prohibition, but more seriously and at greater cost. But such is the price of being a Loyalist- no Serious Democrat speaks about legalization, ever, nor of any kind. We've spent a lot of time talking about Big Problems like why the "bailout" plans are a horror; I'm going to spend a little time talking about why Obama's remarks today are a smaller scale version, but big example of the same problem.

How many reasons can you come up with, which suggest and prove that marijuana normalization is the right and proper course for a civilized society? Never mind me, Glennzilla will be speaking on this topic at CATO on the 16th of April; I'll let him throw down hard data and numbers for me. But just tossing off, let's see what I can come up with: Read more…

So I just found out that a lot of Senate Dems liked this language:

None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made
available by this Act may be used for any casino or other
gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swim-
ming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater,
art center, and highway beautification project.

Because, you know, "museum" is as pointless and unimportant to the health of our society as "casino." To riff off Atrios, this is clearly one of those "designed to piss off Liberals" types of legislative action. And it worked! I'm pissed! Not only is this a petty, stupid, blatantly polemical, destructive, childish piece of legislation, but wait till you see which of "our" fine Dems voted in favor of it: Read more…

Say Hello to Overruled. I'm expecting some quality stuff. Take a look at the "Why I blog" post:

Why I Blog
Debbie Dantz worked at an Applebees, a job she desperately needed to take care of her two teenage daughters and a terminally ill father. It was not a high paying job, but because Dantz couldn't afford a car or even a bed to sleep on, she needed work within walking distance of her home and the Applebees fit the bill.
So when Dantz' boss made a pass at her, she didn't quit because she needed the money. She stuck with the job as her manager's behavior became increasingly bizarre and cruel. He ordered all the waitresses to wear skirts, and would regularly lift them up and make crude comments as he looked under them. Sometimes, he would order Dantz to sit in a chair while he quietly circled her, staring at her like a predator. When Dantz complained about this treatment, her manager and her male co-workers threw food at her.

One day, when Dantz arrived at work a paper was shoved into her hands and she was ordered to sign it. The paper contained something called a "binding mandatory arbitration agreement" which said that, if Applebees broke the law, Dantz no longer had the right to hold it accountable in court and instead would be shunted into a privatized, biased justice system. Dantz refused to sign, and was told that until she did, she would be paid nothing but tips—a violation of federal minimum wage laws. Nevertheless, Dantz needed her job, so she didn't quit.

After nearly three years of harassment, abuse and long hours for little or no pay, Dantz finally decided that she'd had enough. She filed suit against her employer—and the court kicked her to the curb. Even though Dantz refused to sign the binding arbitration agreement, the court said that merely by continuing to work for Applebees, she was bound by its terms. Debbie Dantz' employer illegally abused her for almost three years, and Dantz was powerless to hold it accountable. Read more…

1. it's funnier if you were there.

2. a couple of friends of mine have fucked them, way back in their "nobody" years of the late 80s. apparently they like dumb blondes (of all orientations)

3. i miss them, and am unashamed to say i'm glad to know they have a new album out, no matter how much it may suck. all the critics hated "Violator," but you and i both know how that's spun off some of the greatest remix shit, like, ever. Read more…

So I know that most of you are like me, "cynics" or "PUMAs" or "bitter dead enders" or otherwise irredeemable and more importantly, ignored by People Who Matter. But just for the fun of it, I have to ask: what, if anything, could Obama do to win your love? And support? Perhaps even to the point of you picking up a phone, writing a letter, signing a check, or heaven forfend, getting in a car and standing up at a protest, or some similar 'extreme' action?

I wonder because although I think he won't go all the way, backchatter seems to be that Obama, male Leo that he is, is starting to understand that Republicans only want to use him as a punching bag, and all this "let's be bipartisan" shit isn't going to get him anywhere, nor the warm fuzzies his ego so desperately wants. Like HRC, Obama could come to understand that his power source is, in fact, with the progroot base, and that the bobbleheads in the Village will *never* do more than cut him out the rug from under him, no matter how much he placates them. Just like we've been telling him all along.

But. Would you be part of a fantasy "New Obama Who is Actually Progressive" party, and if so, what for? Read more…

This should make Lambert's cold go away faster:

Courtesy of Harvard professor Niall Ferguson in Vanity Fair:

The motto “In God we trust” was added to the dollar bill in 1957. Since then its purchasing power, relative to the consumer price index, has declined by a staggering 87 percent.

I bet we could turn this economy around by replacing "God" with "FSM." Just sayin.

So my excuse for poor blogging today is that I'm trying to "work" while keeping at least one nosehair in the mess that is the implosion of the Obama Halo of Perfectedness. It's Hard, I tell you! Anyway, I got turned on to this bullshit post over at a place I adore and respect, and I've been having fun there all day. While not making money, that is, the better to pay taxes for bankers to have Hermes-appointed ass warmers.

Being Serious: now, like never before, is the time to kill the "libertarian" ideology for the bullshit it truly is. Hello? Massive numbers of the newly unemployed aren't so hateful of "government handouts" when its their house/job/health car on the line, yo? Don't get me wrong: for a "progressive," I'm actually pretty conservative, and I've defended Libs here more than once, and tend to agree with some of their...let's call them more "nascent" points. But I will not ever accept that a "tax free" society is some kind of utopian solution. It's just a stupid idea.

I've said time and time again: Libs are our friends; they just don't know it. It's a simple matter of making them understand who is really ripping them off. As you know, it's not Scary Brown People or Shiftless Welfare Immigrants. I ask again, how do we convince them of that? Because, as a friend of mine likes to say, "the rich stay in power by convincing one half of the poor to kill the other half." The debate between true progressives and uninformed libertarians seems very much like that to me, in this country. Feel free to flame away at my stupidity.

So we all, rightly, hate TARP and endless funding for war and invasion and other costly programs that reward the rich and failing at the expense of the working class and poor. But what about the Stimulus Bill? I can't claim to have read all of the damn thing (it's over 600 pages long) but I did research the parts that seemed most likely to have an impact on my life. Insurance for the poorest, funding to struggling states, increased education spending...none of these will directly impact my life, but there's a good chance some of the money will trickle down in a way that makes things at least a little bit better for me and mine. What about you?

Despite inaction from most of the rest of his party, I'm getting not a few emails and calls to "take action" and show support for the stimulus bill from groups and offices that are 'tight' with Obama, most specifically by expressing my support for it to Congresscritters. Apparently the Republican push-back against it is a well-funded and so far very effective campaign to scare those poor, helpless Dems in Congress who can't seem to figure out the difference between a dittohead phone campaign and the wishes of their actual constituents. Have you been asked to make any similar pro-stimulus calls, and if so, are you?

I'm down on my knees right now, praying that the FSM keep and protect these poor, simple pastors of the flock:

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. -- Once one of the nation's most popular televangelists, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller is watching his life's work crumble.

His son and recent successor, the Rev. Robert A. Schuller, has abruptly resigned as senior pastor of the Crystal Cathedral. The shimmering, glass-walled megachurch is home to the "Hour of Power" broadcast, an evangelism staple that's been on the air for more than three decades.

The church is in financial turmoil: It plans to sell more than $65 million worth of its Orange County property to pay off debt. Revenue dropped by nearly $5 million last year, according to a recent letter from the elder Schuller to elite donors. In the letter, Schuller Sr. implored the Eagle's Club members _ who supply 30 percent of the church's revenue _ for donations and hinted that the show might go off the air without their support.

"The final months of 2008 were devastating for our ministry," the 82-year-old pastor wrote. Read more…

I just lost my mind a little bit. I'm sure you'll understand why:

The Garden. The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country’s most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community.

But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis.

The Garden follows the plight of the farmers, from the tilled soil of this urban farm to the polished marble of City Hall. Mostly immigrants from Latin America, from countries where they feared for their lives if they were to speak out, we watch them organize, fight back, and demand answers:

Why was the land sold to a wealthy developer for millions less than fair-market value? Why was the transaction done in a closed-door session of the LA City Council? Why has it never been made public?

And the powers-that-be have the same response: “The garden is wonderful, but there is nothing more we can do.”

If everyone told you nothing more could be done, would you give up?

Action Alert. They are still fighting this battle, it seems. Read more…

A step in the right direction.

The Obama administration is expected to impose a cap of $500,000 for top executives at companies that receive large amounts of bailout money, according to people familiar with the plan...

Executives would also be prohibited from receiving any bonuses above their base pay, except for normal stock dividends. President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner plan to announce the executive compensation plan on Wednesday morning at the White House....

Executives at companies that have already received money from the Treasury Department would not have to make any changes. But analysts and administration officials are bracing for a huge wave of new losses, largely because of the deepening recession, and many companies that have already received federal money may well be coming back....

"That is pretty draconian — $500,000 is not a lot of money, particularly if there is no bonus," said James F. Reda, founder and managing director of James F. Reda & Associates, a compensation consulting firm. Read more…

Oy, indeed! Totally NSFW.

Haas said that Gayle Haggard knew a whole lot more about what kind of kinky gay Ted activity was going on than she publicly admits to. When Haas asked about her knowledge of these things, Ted told him "yes, she's a freak too", they went to sex toy stores and even molded a dildo together (calling it "Ted Two")

Go read about the part where Haggard offers up his own daughter. This isn't healthy gaii kink, it's deep Closet-induced sickness. Ick. But also: predicatable.

Well, not exactly:

Bloggers as America's Watchdogs: New Administration, New Roles?
Sponsored by the American Constitution Society Philadelphia Lawyers and Penn Law School chapters:

The blogosphere began during the early months of the Bush Administration with opposition and criticism being the dominant modes for online progressives. With a new administration in the White House, how will the role of the netroots change? How do leaders of online opinion see their responsibilities with respect to the new President?

Featuring:
John Aravosis -- Editor, AMERICAblog
Christy Hardin Smith -- Blogger, Firedoglake
Baratunde Thurston -- Co-Founder, Jack & Jill Politics and Blogger, The Huffington Post
Daniel Urevick-Ackelsberg -- Founder, Young Philly Politics

Moderator: Adam Bonin, chairman of the board of directors, Netroots Nation

Wednesday, February 4, 2009, 5:30pm - 7:00pm
University of Pennsylvania Law School
3400 Chestnut Street, Phila PA
Please RSVP at http://www.acslaw.org/chapters/lawyer/ph...

I sent a note to the moderator. I basically said that I've never been a "blogger for the party" sort, as if that's not blindingly obvious. I also said that I seriously doubt that Villagers and high-ranking Dems give a shit about what I write, think or say. There are some people who blog who think the political blogosphere can and does make a difference in national politics, but since the MoveOn vote, I've pretty much lost faith in that idea. I find the formulation of the questions of the panel sort of interesting. Yes, a lot of my pre-Obama administration blogging was in response to what Bush was doing. But not all of it, nor would I have been any less engaged and enraged had Bush had a (D) after his name. What do you think?

Sigh. I guess it's "surprising" that the guy who spent most of his time as Leader caving, went and caved to Republican pressure. But the real question isn't about the morality or qualification (not) paying taxes confers. It's about whether or not the new administration willl ever figure out that there's a real good reason for truly having ideological diversity in the applicant pool. As has already been commented here, it's interesting to wonder if Obama would've had all these problems with appointees, if he'd gone for actual working people, non-Villagers, and real world experts instead of Beltway insiders and left-overs from Dem administrations past. I made the snarky remark to one person that progressives usually pay our taxes, and frequently, we're so poor we can't even afford things like limo drivers and housekeepers, with whom we later get into trouble for non-reporting and payment. Shocking, that.

But I have to say, even I am a little taken aback by the fumbling coming from the administration on these matters. They are really starting to look like amateurs.

I just love all the cute acronyms they use. Is there a MILF fund, perhaps?

Release Date: February 3, 2009

For release at 10:00 a.m. EST
The Federal Reserve on Tuesday announced the extension through October 30, 2009, of its existing liquidity programs that were scheduled to expire on April 30, 2009. The Board of Governors and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) took these actions in light of continuing substantial strains in many financial markets. Read more…

Go ahead and make all the jokes you want; Detroit is and likely will be an easy target. But I found this Craig's List ad quite interesting.

We've got two options when it comes to all the soon to be unused real estate and "development" in this country. We can leave it to rot, and thus makeover the nation in the image of Detroit in the 70s; or we can accept that what a friend calls 'the suburban-industrial complex' model of the economy isn't ever going to come back, and thus different approaches to development are required.

Big Blue has yet another post about the collapse of the Inland Empire, and I'm sure a review of housing and real estate blogs would show equally grim news for overdeveloped regions all over the country. The truth is, the economic situation we find ourselves in comes in large part from the mythology of the ever-expanding American realty bubble. We let deregulation go too far, and the banking industry took that myth and fucked our entire economy with it when it burst. But like a lot of us hippy crunchy types have been saying for a long time: cheap energy, cheap imported supplies, and cheap credit can't go on forever. That day is here.

I don't know much about this Detroit deal other than the fact that downtown really could use some smart development, and I like the way this sounds. It's time for all of us to take steps to make sure those with different approaches to development to be given their turn. I often imagine what could be done with the decaying, empty strip malls and shuttered big box stores that are popping up with increasing frequency where I live. But I'm also not so hopeful that state and local governments will act in time, and repurpose those properties before the decay makes them uninhabitable. Perhaps I'm wrong in that, and approaches like the one found in this link will become more common than I'd imagined. Read more…

I agree with PW. In all this 'confusion' about what can and should be done to save those poor, helpless bankers, too often is left out discussion about banks that still have money to lend, are solvent, and who are looking forward to a bright future.

The financial downturn has affected but not badly hurt Northeast, Kavalauskas said, because the credit union did not get involved with sub-prime mortgages or embark on “toxic” investments such as mortgage securities or credit default swaps that have crippled the financial system.

He said while locally chartered banks are doing well, “a lot of the big banks are getting out of the lending area.” This could provide a market opening for credit unions, which offer auto and home loans along with money market, certificate of deposit and retirement investment programs.

“We are aggressively adding funds to lend,” Kavalauskas said. Northeast is beefing up its member relations staffing to handle increased customer needs.

I'm getting really sick and tired of hearing about how "no one knows the solution" to the mess for-profit bankers have gotten us into. The success of many credit unions demonstrates that the solution is right there in front of our eyes. There are likely thousands of competent credit union fund managers and investors who could be called upon to reorganize the "bad" banks, but of course the TARP-loving Democrats won't appoint or elevate any of those people, as they aren't proper Villagers. The solution to the banking crisis is simple: regulation, nationalization of insolvent banks, and removing those who mismanged us to economic meltdown from their positions. This won't happen any time soon, mainly because for some time now, the new administration has been taking its financial cues, and checks, from the very people who've proven least able to do their jobs. Read more…

AP on Davos:

"Davos just sort of encapsulates the broader global debate," said Stephen Roach, chairman of investment bank Morgan Stanley in Asia and one of the few to warn last year of the global ramifications of the U.S. sub-prime mortgage problem. "We're now moving into the ugliest phase of every crisis, the blame game."

"Wall Street made mistakes. Regulators made mistakes. Rating agencies made mistakes. Central banks made mistakes. Politicians made mistakes _ we all did it," Roach told The Associated Press. "So let's be careful that we don't let this blame game get out of hand."

What do you mean by "we," Mr. Roach? what an appropriate name for a bankster! Obviously, you don't mean those of us who are actually paying for your mistakes. Trust me, I've got bank vaults full of blame that I have yet to spend.

And you have to save this graph, for the next time someone is telling you about "why they are worth bonuses" and how we need to keep handing them money to 'retain top talent:'

DAVOS, Switzerland -- Mired in indecision and uncertainty, the world's foremost gathering of the best and brightest in government and business failed to come up with any new plan to stem, much less reverse, the global financial meltdown.

In some places, people who can't come up with a plan to address serious problems, you know, get fired. We should try that. Read more…

I don't think I've ever read more ridiculous justifications than I'm reading right now about why it was a "good idea" for Obama to appoint a Republican to Sec. of Commerce, and agree to have a Democratic Gov replace him, with another Republican.

Because the massive filibuster-proof uberliberal majority Dems have in the Senate is so Huge! Or something... Read more…

Pam catches a funny part of the whole explosion of the the Jammy folk:

Roger quips: Actually that part of our business has been losing money from the beginning, so the people getting their quarterly checks from PJM were getting a form of stipend from us in the hopes that advertisers would start to cotton to blogs and we could possibly make a profit. Didn't happen. No wonder those people are kicking and screaming now that they are off the dole. I might too. [What's their beef? I thought most of them were free marketeer libertarians or something.-ed. Go figure.]

Dan Responds:
Here's the thing, Roger: you never once told us that the blog network you kept insisting was the next great thing "has been losing money from the beginning" - at least, not to our faces, and certainly not in any way that would suggest that you were carrying us like welfare recipients. Read more…

You know how a song just sticks in your head for no reason, even if you haven't actually heard it in a long time? "Pure and simple happiness" is the line I like best from this tune. Thank you, Hegel, for giving me this CD all those years ago. I love you like the breath of life itself, and always will. Gosh I miss London.

So one of my jobs is "caregiver" for several elderly family members. Tonight I was out at the Adult Foster Care unit where my Evil Grandmother lives, to meet her new doctor. Someone always has to be there for the intitial visits, as she has a tendency to lie and make up health problems she doesn't really have. Let me stress: Evil. Anyway, he was a great doc, obviously knows how to deal with elderly patients, took his time with us, and in general I feel good about this switch, however much she didn't want it (her old doc quit the visiting physician company he worked for so she had no choice).

Every time I do physician visits with my elderly family members, I'm really struck by how differently they are treated. Compared to my own health "care" experiences as a poor, uninsured person. My family (not counting me, of course) has done a bang-up job of hanging onto some really nice health benefits. Grandma is no exception; she even sued her last employer, successfully, when they got bought out by a large corporation and tried to fuck her and other retirees out of their contracted benefits. Sometimes, Evil pays. I wonder: how evil will I have to be, as I reach the stage when "I don't have insurance" isn't an option and I must seek care? Read more…

I'm with SoBe: WTF?

Talk about your security breaches: A New Zealand man bought a used MP3 player for $15 only to discover it came with 60 pages of sensitive U.S. military data:

The files Ogle found on the MP3 player contain the names and personal details of US soldiers, including some who served in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are no details on exactly how many personal records are contained within the documents (most of which date back to 2005), but they also have information on mission briefings and equipment deployment.

This incident is probably not the worst breach of military data in recent memory. [...] Still, Ogle's situation is a bit bizarre in that no one knows how or why this sensitive information was stored on an iPod, or how that MP3 player slipped out to a used hardware vendor. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), some of the phone numbers from the MP3 player's records still work, and the identified individuals indeed picked up on the other end.

"The more I look at it, the more I see and the less I think I should be [seeing]," Mr Ogle told ABC. He says he will hand the player over to the US Defense Department should it ever ask.

WTF? You mean, they haven't asked?

This is one of those stories that inspires me to write foily fiction. What do you think is going on here? My first guess is that someone on our team is selling data to 'the enemy.' Like, a contractor.

Blue Gal:

Tuesday, February 3 is Blogroll Amnesty Day. Old timers know that this holiday has a rather sullen history, but now it is a happy occasion: On February 3, bloggers are invited to post links to five blogs you like, that have smaller traffic than your own. It's a great celebration and a time to discover new blogs and link them and stuff. As I said last year, "not to get all mushy here, but do you know how fucking great it is to be here in the blogosphere? Take a moment. Take it in." Spread some linky love.

Small and newbie bloggers please be aware of the ironclad rule that you are not allowed to make "hey no blog is as small as mine" jokes regarding Blogroll Amnesty Day. The rule is, straight from the queen of the indy blogs herself (ahem), that you are not allowed to complain or mention your blog's low traffic until you have been posting daily for a year. If you're little, link other blogs that are new or still growing their audience, and encourage them to practice their craft daily. Then, show them how.

Ah, I do remember the great "amnesty" controversy quite well. Really didn't show the A-Listers in a very positive light, imho. John Swift sums it up nicely:

remember how difficult it was to get people to notice my blog when I first started out. "Build it and they will come," apparently only works with magic baseball fields. The only way to get anyone to notice my blog was to get them to link to me and that was not always easy. I linked to other bloggers and clicked on those links hoping they would notice my link in Sitemeter. I sent emails to other bloggers asking them to take a look at my latest piece or to add me to their blogrolls. I instituted my "Liberal Blogrolling Policy" offering to exchange links with anyone who linked to me. As more blogs began to link to me and add me to their blogrolls, a curious thing began to happen. More people came to my blog from those links and from Google. And many of those readers then visited the blogs that I linked to. Though it cost nothing to link to someone, I realized that on the Internet links are capital. Every link has value. And when two bloggers link to each other, they both profit.

 Read more…