Thanks to my beloved, who repaired the radio in my truck.

“I am not a member of an organized political party,” Will Rogers famously said, “I’m a Democrat.”

Boy was he right.

There were more than 750 delegates present for the Democratic County Convention in Lubbock County, Texas today. By the time they handed the (new) gavel over to the incoming county party chair at 8 p.m., maybe 250 remained in the building.  Read more 

No, I’m not talking about the Klan, or even the Republicans “southern strategy.”

But I do want to place this post in the context of much of the back and forth that is going on here at Corrente and through-out the liberal blogisphere about race and racism, what is it, when is it, and who is playing with it.

Mary-Beth at Wampum reminds us of an even wider perspective that liberals have as much difficulty even remembering exists as do right-wingers.

For anyone who doesn’t understand why the national discussion of race needs to address more than just African-American concerns, here’s exhibit one, from today’s LA Times editorial page:

Are the Tibetans doomed to go the way of the American Indians? Will they be reduced to being little more than a tourist attraction, peddling cheap mementos of what was once a great culture? In Tibet itself, that sad fate is looking more and more likely.

What makes it all the more remarkable is that aside from its placement in a major American newspaper, the piece in question is by Ian Buruma, a regular contributer at the NYRB, and as Mary-Beth points out, “the Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Rights and Journalism at Bard College.”

Here’s a question I’d like to ask our readers. Have you already been able to spot what it is in this quote that deserves to be considered within our discussions of American racism?

For those of you who might be distracted by Buruma’s tip of the hat to the “once great culture” of native Americans, which, in fact, was actually multi-cultural and multi-lingual, Mary-Beth has a second post up today that will help you see through these apparently innocent bows to a conception of Native American past greatness.

You see, it seems there was another writer/journalist back in the 19th century who bemoaned the tragedy of exactly that past greatness, in terms remarkably similar to Buruma’s take today.  Read more 

Why, but why, if we’re all a-twitter about race ’n’ sex ’n’ gender, we don’t all read La Chola?
Here is why:  Read more 

This is good to hear, I wish them luck. As SI notes, it’s stupid because it just encourages people to make mirror sites. Stupid suits, still too dense to understand how the intertubes operate as they War on Freedom. Lots of livelinks in the original.

Note to Bank: Don’t Wage War With the Internets

If you follow the political blogs, you probably know about the Wikileaks case. In a nutshell, last week a district court judge ruled in favor of Swiss Bank Julius Baer and ordered the Wikileaks domain name shut down because a former bank employee allegedly used the site to post proof that the bank is involved in a money laundering scheme. Wired’s Threat Level gives an excellent, thorough run-down of the story.

Last night the ACLU, the ACLU of Northern California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a motion to intervene in that lawsuit.  Read more 

Via Digby:

Delahunt: You said if an opinion was rendered, that would insulate him from any consequences.

[Mike Mukasey, Attorney General of the United States, before the House Judiciary Committee today]: We could not investigate or prosecute somebody for acting in reliance on a justice department opinion.

…

Delahunt: If that opinion was inaccurate and in fact violated a section of US Criminal Code, that reliance is in effect an immunity from any criminal culpability.

MM: Immunity connoted culpability. [Well, is anyone culpable? -scar]

…

Delahunt: I find that a new legal doctrine. The law is the law.  Read more 

I suppose next he’ll be saying we need racial purity tests to “prove” that citizens are American enough. If you don’t want to click a WashTimes link I understand.

Mike Huckabee wants to amend the Constitution to prevent children born in the U.S. to illegal aliens from automatically becoming American citizens, according to his top immigration surrogate — a radical step no other major presidential candidate has embraced.  Read more 

A follow-up on the case of Robert Tate, musical director of a Connecticut church frequented by members of the Bush family.

Tate was convicted of possession of child porn.

And now U.S. District Judge Alan H. Nevas (a Reagan appointee) has given Tate’s former attorney a light sentence for acting like a good little Bushie, and destroying Tate’s laptop before the authorities could examine its contents. Just six months of home confinement, a $25,000 fine and community service. “The judge cited his years of good service in sparing him prison.”

Looks like Tate may be getting off, so to speak, relatively easy, as well:  Read more 

Hooray! Congress has now made us 100% safe.

I’m pretty sure we don’t have any freedoms left for the terrorists to hate us for.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including “obscene” cartoons and drawings—or face fines of up to $300,000.

That broad definition would cover individuals, coffee shops, libraries, hotels, and even some government agencies that provide Wi-Fi. It also sweeps in social-networking sites, domain name registrars, Internet service providers, and e-mail service providers such as Hotmail and Gmail, and it may require that the complete contents of the user’s account be retained for subsequent police inspection.  Read more 

Via John Cole:

Donnell Williams had just gotten out of the bath tub, wearing only a towel around his waist, when he turned the corner to see guns pointing right at him.

“I ain’t never been so scared,” says Williams.

Police forced entry into Williams home while responding to a shooting, but it turned out to be a false call. They had no idea at the time the call wasn’t real and that Williams is hearing impaired. Without his hearing aid he is basically deaf.

“I kept going to my ear yelling that I was scared. I can’t hear! I can’t hear!”

Officers were worried about their own safety because at the time it appeared Williams was refusing to obey their commands to show his hands. That’s when they shot him with a Taser.

Okay, so, I can understand what happened here. They thought they were dealing with a guy with a gun. Training, etc, etc. I’ve got one problem with this defense, though:  Read more 

Really long, but worth it. Bottom line: America has lost the War on Drugs, in every effective measure of those words. You knew that, of course, but what fascinated me about this piece was that despite the moderate, non-foily tone, it’s impossible not to come away with the conclusion that our drug policy is directed by complete idiots or corrupt players or both. More radically minded people like me will point out that a big chunk of the failure must be the result of endemic corruption, but even without that, the shift is complete. The time when we can hopefully and unabashedly speak about drug policy reform is here, even if the media has yet to realize that fact. It’s because there are three groups of people in this country, and one of them is finally in the majority.

The first, and largest, are those who believe it is time for sensible drug policy reform, from top to bottom. That group includes not only dope-smoking hippies and Rave-tripping teens, but experienced law enforcement officials and conservative politicians. One of many choice quotes from the article:

“What we learned was that in drug work, nothing ever stands still,” says Coleman, the former DEA official and current president of Drug Watch International, a law-and-order advocacy group. For every move the drug warriors made, the traffickers adapted. “The other guys were learning just as we were learning,” Coleman says. “We had this hubris.”  Read more 

The world’s safest and most useful tool is working impressively again, in Utah. (All you taser fans in the crack den *cough cough* get out your lotion, because this stuff is hot.)

Tasered in front of wife and baby? Check.
Tasered for a speeding ticket? Check.
No threat and no warning? Check.
Sarcastic approval from other cops on the scene? Check.

Digby says it all:

Police in the country are now allowed to torture speeders by the side of the highway in order to get them to comply. The only difference between this officer slugging the speeder in the stomach and putting 50,0000 volts of electricity in him is that the latter doesn’t leave any marks. The intent, the pain and the goose-stepping authoritarian message are exactly the same.

Word to the wise. Do not ever question the police, no matter whether they are violating your rights, ignoring the constitution or breaking the law. It is perfectly legal for them to torture you on the spot if you do.

I’m feeling so free I can hardly breathe.  Read more 

Just the other day, Israel apparently signalled the Palestinians that they—the Israelis—might make concessions on Jerusalem, ahead of the forthcoming “MIddle East Summit” now in the planning stages,  Read more 

Matt and his crew are rapidly becoming my newest heroes. Please read his excellent work on the not-quite-legal activities of some of your favorite political players as the citizens of NV struggle to bring some common sense to our drug regulation laws. I am not qualified to speak at length on what seems to be happening there, but it seems pretty basic to me: public officials should not have the right to condemn initiatives put forth by the general public while on the clock and while using resources bought with your taxdollars. Yet that is exactly what’s going on here, and like Matt, I wonder why the Democrats aren’t following up on very similar and possibly related lawbreaking on Rove’s part. Harry? Nancy? Anyone?  Read more 

You know, when George W. Bush threw his tantrum at the news networks giving Florida to Gore in 2007, I laughed. Out loud.
I had no idea that seven years later that psychopath would be setting us up as the world’s most hated nation, threatening to rain down fire from the sky over Iran. Did any of y’all?

Because, seriously, folks, look what’s happened in the last seven years.

 Read more 

Aqui is an mp3 that is supposedly Allende’s last words. My Spanish really sucks, so I have no idea if it’s real. But I’m just going to run with the translation I found over at Moon of Alabama which is a really informative blog if you’ve not read it before and worth some time, particularly the comments, which are very lively and link-rich. Anyway, the coffee is just kicking in, and this made me really tear up:

Surely, this will be the last opportunity for me to address you. The Air Force has bombed the antennas of Radio Magallanes. My words do not have bitterness but disappointment. May they be a moral punishment for those who have betrayed their oath: soldiers of Chile, titular commanders in chief, Admiral Merino, who has designated himself Commander of the Navy, and Mr. Mendoza, the despicable general who only yesterday pledged his fidelity and loyalty to the Government, and who also has appointed himself Chief of the Carabineros [paramilitary police]. Given these facts, the only thing left for me is to say to workers: I am not going to resign!

Placed in a historic transition, I will pay for loyalty to the people with my life. And I say to them that I am certain that the seeds which we have planted in the good conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans will not be shriveled forever. They have force and will be able to dominate us, but social processes can be arrested by neither crime nor force. History is ours, and people make history.

Workers of my country: I want to thank you for the loyalty that you always had, the confidence that you deposited in a man who was only an interpreter of great yearnings for justice, who gave his word that he would respect the Constitution and the law and did just that.  Read more 

So neice #2 is scheduled to depart from the mothership in December. Science has revealed her gender, and so the games begin, shaping her life before she is even living it. Naming is more complicated than it seems at first blush, no?  Read more 

Federal Register entries for new proposed DHS regulations indicate no US citizen can fly without prior government approval, period.
“The proposed new rules, which are currently open for public comments, would require that:

1. All would be international travellers to or from the USA (even US citizens crossing the U.S.-Canada border on foot) would have to have government-issued ID credentials

2. All would-be passengers on international or domestic flights to, from, over, via, or within the U.S. would have to have both government-issued ID credentials and explicit case-by-case prior permission from the DHS to the airline to allow each passenger to board a plane.  Read more 

The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation – enlightened as it is – if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men. -Samuel Adams

Even Tom Clancy knows that in any leadership conference or large gathering, what you really get isn’t collective wisdom but the sum of all fears. Given what’s happened since 1980,  Read more 

This isn’t safe for work, not one bit.  Read more 

Some friends of mine used to play a game which consisted of being asked this question: When you leave a room, what would you most like people to say about you?

Mine was easy: “She’s too thin,” although there was a close second: “She’s a bitch, but talented!.”

An actor friend, noted for his humor and bonhomie and his pleasantly goofy look, hoped to hear something like, “well, he’s got no personality, but he’s gorgeous.”

You get the picture.

The personalty log-line that brought down the house came from that actor’s wife, also an actress, an extremely witty and beautiful earth mother bringing up two children, who wished to hear, “That woman’s a saint.”

Which brings me to Peggy Noonan and her latest apparently unconscious satire of Republican anti-immigration tropes.

I know, I know. Not her again. Why bother?

Trust me, this one is special. Here’s the setup.  Read more 

Ian wonders of it would make good Canadian policy to more aggresively recruit Americans who are feeli  Read more 

Spectra: the range of color, or hue, or intensity — let’s take a second and just examine the spectra of rottenness, shall we?  Read more 

Students teach, and teachers learn.

R.L. Loeffelbein, a physics teacher at Washington University in St. Louis was about to give a student a zero for the student’s answer to an examination problem. The student claimed he should receive a perfect score, if the system were not so set up against the student. Instructor and student agreed to submit to an impartial arbiter, Dr. Alexander Calandra, who tells the story.
The examination problem was: “Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer.”  Read more