well, we're citizens, so we must be safe, right?

Here's a U.S. Citizen (born and raised) held by the Saudis at U.S. request since June 2003, charged with no crime by either government. His parents are challenging his detention in a U.S. court, and the government wants the court to decide if their son can be held indefinitely based on evidence it is willing to show only to the judge:

The U.S. government asked a judge yesterday to dismiss a Falls Church couple's challenge of their son's imprisonment based on reasons and evidence that would be kept secret from the family and the public.

Justice Department lawyer Ori Levi, while acknowledging that such a ruling would be unprecedented, told the judge "there's very little risk" that Ahmed Abu Ali, a U.S. citizen detained in a Saudi prison for 20 months, has been wrongly deprived of his freedom.

Oh well, that's okay then. If the government says so, it must be true. right? Right?

Wal-Mart and Department of Labor, Together At Last

The U.S. Department of Labor recently signed an agreement with Wal-Mart to notify them 15 days in advance of any investigation they intend to make on labor violations, to allow Wal-Mart ample time to correct the problem. Oh, and they fined Wal-Mart $130K for breaking child labor laws -- for example, allowing minor employees to operate chainsaws. Also,

Several federal employees voiced concern about a Jan. 10 e-mail message sent by the director of the Little Rock, Ark., office for the Labor Department's wage and hour division after the settlement was reached, that said, "Wage & Hour will not open an investigation of Wal-Mart without first notifying Wal-Mart's main office and allowing them an opportunity to look at the alleged violations and, if valid, correct the problem."

Incidentally, this article is an excellent example of the perils of only reading the headlines. The headline says "Wal-Mart agrees to Pay Fine In Child Labor Cases" but the article is about the fine, the fact that the settlement with DOL was reached a month ago but not disclosed to the public, and, most especially, that the agreement includes provisions that several federal employees have complained are there to allow Wal-Mart to continue violating labor laws.

Hullaballoo on John Yoo

Or, Digby Does Depressing

Dear Readers: Who Are You?

You don't have to say, of course -- we're not the Department of Homeland Security. Just curious. Writing a small blog with small-blog traffic can be lonely and futile-seeming, and a list of IP addresses isn't as fun as knowing something about the people who read us. And yes, we do have a few readers, we get site stats.

We don't want your names or photos of you in your underwear. Just, you know, a general outline. "Senior Administration Official who wishes to remain anonymous," for example.

Frank Rich's "Bathosphere"

Very nice distillation by Frank Rich on the bizzare maudlin sentimentalia ruling today's culture in today's NYT:

What really makes these critics hate "Million Dollar Baby" is not its supposedly radical politics - which are nonexistent - but its lack of sentimentality. It is, indeed, no "Rocky," and in our America that departure from the norm is itself a form of cultural radicalism. Always a sentimental country, we're now living fulltime in the bathosphere. Our 24/7 news culture sees even a human disaster like the tsunami in Asia as a chance for inspirational uplift, for "incredible stories of lives saved in near-miraculous fashion," to quote NBC's Brian Williams.

I love his term "bathosphere."

Misc.

First, a little provision they're trying to stick into some immigration act exempts the Department of Homeland Security from all laws, and from all judicial review of its exemption from all laws. But don't worry, it'll only be exempt "whenever it acts to secure the borders and remove 'obstacles to detection of illegal entrants.'"

Orcinus chronicles more suppression of dissent. Orcinus, for those who don't know him, is always worth a click-through, by the way. He doesn't post indiscriminately, and he's actually a professional journalist.

What a surprise: a congressional committee investigating election 2004 problems is upset because the Florida and Ohio Secretaries of State declined invitations to testify.

I can't believe anyone could make a case going after CNN for being anti-american, though. Well, actually, I can.

Finally..Humor: I want me some of this...

Oh, for Christ's fucking sake...

Atrios:

Gannon leaves, and is magically replaced with GannonBot Mark II (or is it KinsolvingBot Mark III?). From the gaggle:

Q Does this administration believe the Democratic leaders are now engaged in a deliberate disinformation campaign as the best way to undermine the President's goals and objectives on a number of issues?

MR. McCLELLAN: A deliberate?

Q Yes.

MR. McCLELLAN: We would certainly hope not. The President has made it very clear that he wants to reach out and work together on our shared priorities. That's what he's going to continue to do.

So far I've been unable to determine who Scotty's new suppository is. If anyone knows...

Digby has more on our friend Gannon

Wolf Blitzer and Howie Kurtz taking those mean liberal bloggers to task for going after the poor man's personal life. What bullshit.

"Still sexy after all these years..."

'Jeff Gannon,' the fake reporter/wanna-be-military-escort, has closed up shop. Some people in the blogosphere are trying to blame this on supposed gay-bashing on the major left-wing blogs, triggered by the discovery of a photo of him in his underwear that he'd posted on the internet (no longer up, sorry) with the legend "Still Sexy after all these years..." Vanity afflicts people of all sexual orientations, so the photo certainly doesn't prove anything about his. So is it gay-bashing for lefties to make snide remarks implying that he is? Only if, as the right believes, being gay is something to be ashamed of. When Lynne Cheney complained about John Kerry mentioning that her daughter was gay, when Ken Mehlman puts out press releases tarring Democrats with close relationships to gay rights groups despite the open secret of his own sexual orientation, when Alan Keyes rails against gay people while his daughter posts pictures of herself making out with her girlfriend on the internet -- that is gay-bashing. Commenting on these things is not gay-bashing, it's hypocricy-bashing. Likewise, I don't care what Jeff Gannon's sexuality is, but the consumers of his fake news probably do.

The Right has beautifully turned the arguments of liberalism into rhetorical devices against liberalism itself, calling us racists for opposing Condi and Torture-guy, anti-gay for complaining about gay Republicans who push legal reforms discriminating against gays, and so on. It's stupid to fall for this trick and try to argue with them about it. To say that those who opposed an AG nominee on the grounds that he supports torture are racist because the nominee is Latino is to drain the term 'racism' of any meaning whatsoever.

But then, they're draining all language of meaning, as fast as they possibly can, so what else is new?...

cracked Greenspun

I have enjoyed reading Philip Greenspun's often-provocative writings on many things -- software engineering, photography, politics -- for years. He is a very interesting character: a part-time MIT computer science faculty member who ran a company where Amy briefly considered working, which flamed out during the dot-com holocaust. He's famously arrogant, but he's also often right.

This article is pretty cracked, though. I don't know what is going on in his head.

Jeff Gannon, white house plant and hot military stud

Last week I pointed out a Globe article on a guy named Jeff Gannon, the pseudonym of a fake reporter who gets daily white house press passes and is frequently called on by the White House goons to badmouth democrats in question format (hey, new game show!). For example, at Bush's press conference, 'Gannon' called Democrats "divorced from reality" and asked how Bush was ever going to deal with such people.

Today, Atrios provides a list of domains he's registered, including hotmilitarystud.com, and a link to a picture of the man himself in his underwear. "Divorced from reality," indeed.

James Lileks

Back when I lived in the Twin Cities ages ago, James Lileks was an amusing social commentator in the alternative weeklies. He still publishes amusing commentary on decor and architecture, but anything by him in the last while on politics is in that deluded "realistic" far-right wing vein. One of his core theses, as you'll see below, is that Bush is a tough promulgator of liberal democracy.

The guy is syndicated in the Washington fucking Times. Need I say any more?

Digby on...

Fascism.

New Zealand is looking better and better every day.

Via TPM, we learn that the RNC is threatening TV stations

that are carrying a MoveOn.org ad against the president's social security bunker-buster. SouthBendTribune.com: RNC asks stations to kill 'false TV ad':

Kevin Sargent, vice president and general manager for WSJV-TV, said he viewed the RNC letter as threatening.

The last two paragraphs of the letter said:

"As an FCC licensee, you have a responsibility to exercise independent editorial judgment to oversee and protect the integrity of the American marketplace of ideas, and to avoid broadcasting deliberate misrepresentations of the facts. Such obligations must be taken seriously and I urge you to decline to broadcast this advertisement.

"This letter places you on notice that the information contained in the above-cited advertisement is false and misleading. Your station should act responsibly and refrain from airing this advertisement."

"When a letter says 'this letter places you on notice,' " Sargent said, "that's kind of threatening."

"intelligent design" makes it to NYT op-ed

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: Design for LivingThis guy is with some outfit called The Discovery Institute, which among other things advocates 'teaching the controversy,' aka "Evolution is just a theory, kids. You know, like Fox Mulder's theories."

Welcome to the new Dark Age, kids. Let's throw science out the window. Stupid, stupid science.

global warming apocalypse porn

Apocalypse Now: How Mankind is Sleepwalking to the End of the Earth A report from the most recent 'climate change' conference. It's shrill, hysterical, and terrifying, and it's probably correct. Quick, honey, let's sell the apartment before it becomes a swimming pool.

Democratic Senators who deserve our contempt

(1) Senator Ken Salazar (Colorado).

(2) Senator Joseph Lieberman (Conn.).

(3) Senator Ben Nelson (Neb.).

(4) Senator Mary Landrieu (La.)

(5) Senator Pryor (Ark).

(6) Senator Bill Nelson (Fla.)

They voted to confirm Gonzales.

Of course, all the Republican senators did too, but we already knew they deserved our contempt. Even John McCain, who was himself tortured, apparently doesn't think the experience was that bad after all. (Perhaps with torture, as with labor, you forget the pain?). Which suggests that peoples' 'personal stories' have little effect on their political behavior.

Contrarian view of Summer's gaffe

As a graduate of Harvard's women's studies department (well, it's not a department, it's a commitee, and my major major was actually 'Religion, Comparative Study of', also a committee), I've felt my failure to comment on the Summers thang as a positive deriliction of duty. But I just couldn't get it up about the whole thing. Why would someone so smart say something so dumb? I thought. And then moved on to thinking about torture.

However, here's a Boston Globe article on what came out of the uproar:Harvard aims to spur advancement of women

In response to the outcry that followed Harvard University president Lawrence H. Summers's remarks on women in the sciences, the university announced yesterday the creation of two task forces to develop concrete ways to better recruit women and support the careers of female scholars at Harvard, especially in science and engineering.

Harvard also announced plans to create a senior position in the central administration to focus on the recruitment and advancement of women on the faculty.

Now, imagine you're a senior administrator at a powerful institution, trying to control a bunch of ornery cats who think they know better than you. Some of those cats think all this gender bias crap is bullshit. Everyone's fighting over money, initiatives of all sorts are started and then flounder in committees, and people think you're a crazy motherfucker anyway. Say you really do think there's a problem with gender bias in the academy, but am getting nowhere with your efforts to get your staff to take it seriously.

What if you said something so outrageous to a bunch of other university presidents that the ensuing uproar practically forced your institution to take positive steps toward correcting the problem? People would scream and shout and call you a pig, but the net result would be progress.

Who knows what Larry Summers was really thinking when he said that? Who, however, can doubt that the result will probably be good for women at Harvard?

Geekout

O'Reilly has started a new magazine called 'Make.' Target audience: people who think it's fun to install Linux on their microwave ovens.

Ah, to be a Member of The Party

Orcinus comments on a recent story by a reporter who covered the inauguaral balls, who says he was followed everywhere by 'minders' and has the following to say about their purpose:

Consider that the escorts weren't there to provide security; all of us had already been through two checkpoints and one metal detector. They weren't there to keep me away from, Heaven forbid, a Democrat or a protester; those folks were kept safely behind rings of fences and concrete barriers. Nor were the escorts there to admonish me for asking a rude question of the partying faithful, or to protect the paying customers from the prying media.

Their real purpose only occurred to me after I had gone home for the night, when I remembered a brief conversation with a woman I was interviewing. During the middle of our otherwise innocuous encounter, she suddenly noticed the presence of my minder. She stopped for a moment, glanced past me, then resumed talking.

No, the minders weren't there to monitor me. They were there to let the guests, my sources on inaugural night, know that any complaint, any unguarded statement, any off-the-reservation political observation, might be noted. But maybe someday they'll be monitoring something more important than an inaugural ball, and the source could be you.

And the Fargo blacklist is, surprise, probably NOT the work of an "overzealous volunteer".

Why Did Salon Publish This 12-year-old Masquerading as a Book Reviewer

Someone named Ann Marlowe reviews The Neocon Reader, a book I'd actually like to read a real review on. Unfortunately, Ms. Marlowe, whose most impressive accomplishment to date has been to write a book about her love affair with heroin, has the mentality of a twelve-year-old:

If you're old enough to have followed politics in the '70s, you'll remember that liberals used to be the exciting ones. They were more open-minded, more imaginative and, well, sexier than conservatives. And one big reason Bush won in 2004 was that many of us who were ambivalent about the man and his politics -- I voted for Gore in 2000 -- found the Democrats and their candidate smugly self-righteous, prissy and joyless. Sure, red-staters can be smug, too, but it's as incongruous in liberals as it is in garage bands. My liberal friends asked how I could support the candidate of the Christian right, but Kerry came off as so plastic and corporate, so backpedaling and two-faced, that by election night I felt that wearing a Bush button was a punk rock gesture.

Not just a twelve-year-old, a fascist twelve-year-old. Why did Salon publish such a piece of shit 'review'?

No remorse

School Halts Adopt a Sniper Fund-Raiser:

CHICAGO - A U.S. university in Wisconsin has blocked an attempt by Republican students to raise money for a group called "Adopt a Sniper" that raises money for U.S. sharp-shooters in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The students were selling bracelets bearing the motto "1 Shot 1 Kill No Remorse I Decide".

More Memory Hole...

A Whistle-Blower's Inside View of the Homeland Security Nominee

Senator Dodd's speech opposing Gonzales nomination

here (via TalkLeft)

TNR on the race for DNC chair

Thanks to Bellatrys for the link: The New Republic Online: The Outsiders. The truly amazing thing in the article is this quote from James Carville:

To many Washington Democrats watching the circus-like contest from afar, it has been an embarrassment. "I think it's pathetic," says James Carville. "It's so indicative of the Democratic Party. Now we're just playing into every stereotype: We're weak, disorganized, flopping around. ... Somebody should have fixed this damn thing in November. I wish someone would have taken charge and three or four people would have gotten together in a smoke-filled room. ... They're not running for president! They are running for party chair. This is supposed to be a rigged deal. You think the Republicans would do it this way?" 

As Bellatrys points out, um, Mr. Carville, you fuck the enemy. You are no friend of ours.

I was an anti-Deaniac in the presidential race, but I'm glad Dean's gonna be DNC chair. I think we're hosed, no matter what we do, and we may as well go down with a feral, rebel yell. This is not the time to go gently into that good night. History will remember those who went down fighting, and scorn the appeasers.