Busy day in the mix house so here are a couple of reader contributions. First up, reader R sends this SPLC item about for-profit Mississippi prisons, where the invisible hand holds a leash on a pet rat:
The lawsuit describes a facility where prisoners are often locked in filthy cells and ignored even when they are suffering from serious medical issues. Many cells lack light and working toilets, forcing prisoners to use trays or plastic bags that are tossed through slots in their cell doors. Rats often climb over prisoners’ beds. Some prisoners even capture the rats, put them on makeshift leashes and sell them as pets to other prisoners.
Move over Rob Ford, reader M sends news of another political genius running one of Japan’s largest cities:
Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto has been haunted by his choice of words ever since igniting furious public debate a few weeks ago when we suggested that Japan’s use of some 200,000 comfort women during WWII was “necessary”.
Finally, in the spirit of John’s post last night, reader L sends this Wonkette item on James Comey that coins the political blogging equivalent of TL;DR:
Speaking of petty and stupid, you will likely not be surprised to learn that Glenn Greenwald is not very happy with this choice no he is not. We did not really bother to read his column about it because GG;DR (Glenn Greenwald; Didn’t Read) but we think the gist of it is that no one on earth is good enough for Glenn except Glenn, but maybe you’d like to trot on over there and read for yourself? No? We don’t blame you.
When I post things like that, I have to remind myself that I didn’t start the fire, it was always burning since the world’s been turning. Open thread.
Soonergrunt
The only thing I can say to this is that you should be chastised severely for using lyrics from that particular Billy Joel song.
Shortstop
You crack me up, mm.
Shortstop
@Shortstop: sounded sarcastic. Was not.
Jay in Oregon
I posted this in the other open thread:
Some light reading for the weekend: https://miter.mit.edu/the-unexotic-underclass/
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Win.
the Conster
How fucking hard is it in 2013 to be a politician and not say such obviously controversial shit? What planet do these idiots think they’re on? Maybe you think that “comfort” women were necessary – OK, I’ve got a big problem with that – but then publicly assert that in this instantaneous transmission media milieu? W.T.F.
Also could someone let GG know that Obama insists that one should not throw oneself into woodchippers? kthx.
Roger Moore
@the Conster:
Ask the 2013 Republican Party.
the Conster
@Roger Moore:
I like to think our Republicans are special snowflakes of stupid – I’m really surprised that socialist Canadians and Japanese are adopting the American brand of stupid too. Maybe it’s just a man thing.
Poopyman
@Soonergrunt: Yeah, it coulda been “You had to be a big shot, didn’t-cha?” Addressed to GG, obviously.
cathyx
We wouldn’t want to criticize someones stance on an issue by not even reading what he wrote. That would be too open minded and fair.
c u n d gulag
Privatized prisons!
What could possibly go wrong?
I mean, really?
A prison is just a storage facility for humans who broke some law or other, where, in this case, government pays the owner of that facility, instead of owning and maintaining it, and taking care of the humans stored there, itself.
And the less one spends on the humans stored there, the greater the profits!
And even better – if the humans walk out with no new skills learned, they’ll return to the former ways, and be returned again, for more storage!
MORE PROFITS!
I’m surprised that I haven’t read about some program where, once a prisoner is released, the companies don’t hire some “Tempter,” to try to lead the released prisoner back into whatever it was that got them into the owner’s storage facility in the first place.
Hmm…
But I probably shouldn’t give them any ideas, right?
Suffern ACE
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): I did read it. And I am not certain how to summarize it. “I praised Comey at the time for his principled stand. But he’s really a “yes man” who lacks principles.”
Glenn would help the progressive cause quite a bit if he’d start naming people he would support. It can’t be a long list. They can’t have much experience because pretty much everyone who has worked in jobs related to the function in the past 50 years are disqualified. So it would help if his readers could start raising the profile of those who should have those jobs when the jobs are open.
Brandon
The brilliance of GG;DR is that it succinctly covers the two main problems with his writing. First, he’s too verbose. Second, he’s too predictable. I posit that both problems come from the same source: his self-indulgence, to put it politely.
drbloor
@the Conster:
They don’t think the stuff they’re saying is controversial.
Soonergrunt
@Poopyman: that would’ve worked pretty well, actually.
Omnes Omnibus
@cathyx: Was it a criticism of his stance on the issue or was a criticism of his writing?
Felonius Monk
@the Conster:
Superb! Nominated for the catch-phrase Hall of Fame!
Soonergrunt
@Suffern ACE: but that’s not his shtick. His shtick is to bitch and complain and be “principled.”
gbear
@Soonergrunt: I love it just the way it is.
WereBear
Exactly. They think “everybody knows this” but too often, it just means you are hanging way too much with other jerks like yourself, and ya gotta get out more.
Omnes Omnibus
@the Conster:
Don’t lump me in with them because of the mere coincidence that we have XY chromosomes. I offer, instead, the theory that they all ate lead based paint chips as children.
RSA
@Jay in Oregon: Thanks for the link. Really interesting reading.
I’m in academia, not industry, and I don’t have any special insight into entrepeneurship, but my impression from being peripherally involved with a couple of start-ups is that there can be a big focus on short-term gain. When VC funding comes into the picture, I think this means targeting people with cash to spare, which leaves out the unexotic underclass.
One “underclass” I work with professionally is people with vision impairment. I started out naively thinking that it ought to be easy to find support for research and development on making it easier for blind people to use modern computers–not so, and I don’t entirely understand why not.
imonlylurking
Manny and his bone-he doesn’t chew on it but we’ve noticed he has to sleep with his paw on it.
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z45/imonlylurking/965074_10151650813370568_758655454_o.jpg
Omnes Omnibus
@gbear: At least, he could polish the fenders.
gbear
@cathyx: So when was the last time you listened to an entire Rush Limbaugh or Glen Beck program? Also too, Wonkette is snark. I agree with Ben Cisco that it’s very much full of win.
MattF
Article on prisons notes that the prison in question is “designated as a facility to care for prisoners with special needs and serious mental illness” and if inmates don’t immediately qualify for incarceration there, they will qualify after being there for a while.
No, seriously, this is not a joke.
maya
Someone should be checking the world water supply for Pb, or at least the DC bar circuit water taps. Could explain a lot.
SatanicPanic
@the Conster: Hashimoto has been watching the career of Shintaro Ishihara (Tokyo’s long-serving mayor) and has seen that recalling Japan’s fascist past can get you far. Their current PM is a far right nutjob who somehow managed to get a second term as PM despite resigning from stress a few years back. Japan has such a dearth of quality politicians and such high turnover that pretty any old asshole can become PM if they wait around long enough. I watch Japanese politics because there’s a good chance I will move back there in the future and I’m not hopeful. That country is fucked.
Roger Moore
@Suffern ACE:
The list has one name, and his initials are GG.
Walker
@RSA:
Blind people really get shafted on funding. I reviewed a grant proposal for some blind related CS research once. The amount they were asking was ridiculously low – we wanted to give the more – and it was clear that it was because they were used to getting nothing.
ShadeTail
@the Conster:
There’s nothing “American” about it. It’s just a basic human quality. Japan, in particular, has always been run by militant nut-jobs, and their right-wingers in general are quite the pack of circus clowns. *Dangerous* circus clowns who like to firebomb people’s houses, mind you, but circus clowns none the less.
Suffern ACE
@Soonergrunt: yes. One might think that GG doesn’t actually want to improve things. Glenn actually does serve up reasons why Comey might not be the FBI chief he wants, but although he takes a little time to assert that Comey isn’t John Yoo or David Addington, the gist of the facts he has arranged is that he might as well be.
the Conster
@SatanicPanic:
I was listening to something on NPR yesterday that basically the country is shutting down – the birthrate is so low and the population is aging so fast that the economy is in a death spiral because of its social obligations, with no end in sight. The Fukushima disaster and the uncertainty that creates will further depress birthrates, etc. Not much hope for a change in trajectory, and it does make sense that in that context the older folks become reactionary.
Roger Moore
@the Conster:
It’s a right wing thing. The Japanese extreme nationalists are just as stupid and obnoxious as extreme nationalists in any other country.
Suffern ACE
@Roger Moore: not really. My guess is that Glenn would like to shut down the FBI. So of course anyone, including himself, who would want the job, would be disqualified.
Roger Moore
@maya:
So you mean all those Prop 65 warnings we get out here in California may be doing us some good?
Elizabelle
What is TL; DR? What’s TL stand for?
ps: gg;dr is perfect.
ETA: is it Too Late?
Suffern ACE
@Elizabelle: too long.
ShadeTail
Re: Japan. The fact is, two or three generations of Japanese folks have been raised with a heavily sanitized and whitewashed view of what actually happened during WW2. A lot of the atrocities the Imperial army committed were either cleaned up or simply written out of the history books. The fact that a relatively prominent Japanese politician could say, with a straight face, that the “comfort women” business wasn’t any big deal is actually pretty typical.
Roger Moore
@Suffern ACE:
IOW, back when he was being compared to the rest of the Bush Administration, he looked good. Now that Obama is in charge, Greenwald is comparing him to the platonic idea of an FBI director, and he just doesn’t measure up.
@Suffern ACE:
Except that it’s not just the FBI. Greenwald finds something to complain about with everybody who is ever appointed to do anything. I think you got it mostly right above when you said he’ll find something to complain about WRT anyone who has a record in government service. He’s basically a libertarian who distrusts government because he doesn’t think there’s anyone perfect enough to run it.
Julia Grey
Thread:
Too Long; Didn’t Read.
Elizabelle
@Suffern ACE:
Thank you. Too Lame would work too.
Lou Reed recovering from liver transplant.
And he’s married to Laurie Anderson. I did not know either fact.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/jun/01/lou-reed-liver-transplant?guni=Network%20front:network-front%20main-4%20Pixies:Pixies:Position1
Julia Grey
Okay, of course I read it. But it WAS too long. And even longer now.
Sheesh, the amount of time I spend on you people every day is scandalous.
Kay
@Jay in Oregon:
I like it a lot, but I would disagree strongly with the idea that working class parents need “flexible” schedules. That doesn’t translate well when applied to the work that they do. It is an idea that was taken from professionals (who get paid a lot for their “flexibility”) and applied to manufacturing and service industries.
If you make 9 dollars an hour and are a parent, and want to be a good parent, you have to be a very good planner. There’s not a lot of room for error. You spend a good part of every day guarding against chaos, things spinning out of control. In my experience the last thing they want is “flexibility” in a work schedule. If it changes constantly, and they do now, low wage jobs, you can’t PLAN, and you’re screwed.
I have women come into the office in tears because they were told they’re “going to 2nd” from 1st shift. This carefully constructed bulwark they’ve built to keep their households calm and somewhat orderly just falls apart. It’s even worse for service workers. They can’t budget because they don’t know if they’re getting 23 hours or 40 hours, or WHEN they’ll be working those hours.
“Flexible” scheduling only works if you have some leverage in the workplace. The people I see want predictability.
Chris
@drbloor:
Either that or they know it is but also know that large quantities of Patriots can be expected to crawl out of the woodwork and Support Our Troops against the expected outrage. So basically the Japanese version of “because it pisses off liberals.”
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Exactly. To put it bluntly, flexibility is a good thing for an employee pretty much only when the employee controls the flexing, not the boss.
Villago Delenda Est
@RSA:
This is easy. Not oodles of short term ROI in it.
Our Ferengi society is our doom.
Frankensteinbeck
@Roger Moore:
Isn’t he entirely open about that? I think it’s a contemptible trait, but folks expecting him to be a liberal are barking up the wrong tree. He’s a regular old ‘Ron Paul is pretty keen and we should overlook the racism’ libertarian.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
Flexible scheduling is great when it’s the employee who has the flexibility, which is what most white collar people are thinking of. I’m sure that people earning close to minimum wage would love to be able to tell their employer that they’re going to show up half an hour late because the bus couldn’t keep its schedule, or they’re going to clock out for a few hours to go to a parent teacher conference and will make up the rest of their hours later in the day. They’d probably also like flying unicorn ponies.
Corner Stone
But why Comey? Why a Republican? And why a Republican with so much obvious and complicated baggage?
Villago Delenda Est
@Suffern ACE:
Perhaps GG wants Fox Mulder or Dana Scully to head the FBI?
Amir Khalid
@ShadeTail:
People here of my generation grew up with our parents’ stories of the Japanese occupying forces in World War II. Those stories weren’t the kind you tell little kids at bedtime, if you get my drift. Needless to say, the prospect of a renascent fascism in Japan is an unsettling one.
Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)
@Jay in Oregon: Thanks for that. Good article, although some of the “there’s nothing wrong with technological entrepreneurship as salvation” talk is off. Not everyone can code, or should. People need well-paying, stable employment. Not “learn2code,” no matter what TED says.
Frankensteinbeck
@Amir Khalid:
I remember in college when I was taking classes on Chinese and Japanese history reading about the Japanese campaign when they were losing WWII to convince the population of Okinawa to commit suicide after the Japanese pulled out.
Roger Moore
@Frankensteinbeck:
He’ll say it sometimes, but it’s not something that he wears on his sleeve all the time. This is what I find contemptible about him and his writing. He’s a reliable source of hit pieces against everything the government is doing masquerading as an unbiased observer. It’s only occasionally that he’ll let the mask slip and show that he’s never going to support anything.
Suffern ACE
@Corner Stone: who doesn’t have complicated baggage? He also made his mark prosecuting Bernie Ebbers. He’s a complicated guy.
Doesn’t answer the Why the Republican though.
Frankensteinbeck
@Roger Moore:
In that regard I’m too distracted by his using the authority of being a constitutional lawyer to wildly misrepresent constitutional law.
Amir Khalid
@Villago Delenda Est:
Of these two, I’d pick Scully. Mulder was ever willing to break the rules in pursuit of The Truth, which would no doubt provoke many an outraged column from GG; she was always the voice of sanity.
aimai
@Kay: This is a hundred percent correct. You need “flexibility” in the sense that you need a workplace which will tolerate a large number of spontaneous and unpredictable missed work dates-with pay. But you don’t need “flexibility” when that is a code word for unpredictability in scheduling your work time.
I was pretty pissed off at the couple of researchers NPR just interviewed in re Time, Money, and Happiness who basically started from the perspective that everyone has enough money to trade to get time and happiness. A whole lot of workers and working families don’t have money to trade for time. People doing shift work or holding down two or three jobs are doing so because they can’t get a predictable, full time, job that pays enough so they could dream of trading money, or access to work producing money, for time with their families.
dmbeaster
@ShadeTail:
It is actually worse than that, assuming the translation of his remarks that comfort women were “necessary” is correct. This seems to suggest that it was appropriate — a denial of wrongdoing. And he still refuses to apologize, so I sense that he defends the legitimacy of the practice. From the linked article:
The Japanese behaved like barbarians during WWII (something that I assume would drive them to spitting rage if you said that to them), and were akin to the Nazis. What is amazing is to compare post-war German response to the Japanese response about past crimes. The Germans have left the Japanese in the dust when it comes to recognition and atonement for their cultural flaws that resulted in their atrocities. God forbid that the Japanese in general would recognize flaws in their culture as exposed by WWII. The linked article refers to a formal apology for sexually enslaving women for the troops by the Japanese government, in 1993, which seems rather late, but at least it happened.
Suffern ACE
@Amir Khalid: scully has a microchip implanted in her brain. I don’t want to disqualify her for that trauma, but until we know what that is for, I’m going to have to vote no on that nomination.
Flying Squirrel Girl
Since this is an open thread on a music-heavy blog, just wanted to share: I am WAY too old to be as giddily excited as I am about seeing Alabama Shakes (among others) today and Gogol Bordello (among others) tomorrow. I do love a festival vibe, even if it’s in Houston. Carry on!
smintheus
Taking potshots at GG without bothering to read him – clever.
I’m not happy at all with Comey’s impending nomination, for exactly the same reasons that GG lays out: He approved some blatantly illegal and unconstitutional policies, did not resign in protest over them, and did not blow the whistle on them. If he took a stand against a single extreme element in the array of extremely illegal things Bush was doing, so what? Doesn’t make him trustworthy.
WereBear
@Kay: My mother tried working at WalMart.
First month or two, it was all, I know you don’t like them, but they have these videos that get us all fired up, and such nice people, and the prices are so low!
Then, it was, Oh, honey, I’m sorry about those boots which stained your feet purple at the first rain. I got a shirt that just fell apart! They are playing with my schedule, if they don’t give me the hours I don’t know what to do…
Around the four month mark, it turned into: These awful people! They won’t give me enough hours to live on and they mess with my schedule so I can’t get another job, either! I’m quitting and I’m never shopping here again!
Corner Stone
@Suffern ACE: Primarily, anyone at a high level in the GWB admin is most likely going to have an immediacy of baggage others may not have encountered.
But in Comey’s case, it’s also why I included the word “obvious”. He’s very involved in at least two of the worst decisions made by the GWB admin.
We can’t have Susan Rice as SecState because she said something on a talk show, but we can have a an individual like Comey run the FBI?
And to some extent, this perpetuation is why when someone feels like a tough job needs to get done, they look for a Republican to appoint or nominate.
WereBear
Heaven knows, we got enough problems.
As they say, it’s a young person’s game. If you have the right brain arrangement, it’s kind of like breathing. If you have some talent for building the mental structures, it’s tough and exhausting. And there’s lots of people who don’t think that way and never will.
Mike in NC
My TV stated that John McCain and Bob Woodward will be making the rounds of the Sunday morning yakfests. Yeah, it would only be news if they weren’t.
WereBear
@Frankensteinbeck: There’s an excellent book, Downfall, about the last days of the Japanese militaristic culture before surrender.
Crazy, death-cult, “Hitler in the bunker taking people with me” kind of stuff.
It’s the one I recc when people say “Oh, it was so wrong to drop the atom bomb.”
It was not a good thing, I’ll be the first to say it. But the book supports the concept that such an action saved millions of lives; on both sides.
Kay
@aimai:
I think it’s a great piece, the broad idea is great, that they could work on real problems, but I would suggest starting at identifying them by asking the people with the problems what they are.
Back up a little. Ask. How would the people he’s talking about know what the problems are if they are “coastal elites” (just to use a shorthand term for the people he’s describing)?
Do people in these places want a longer school day? Or do the older kids watch the little kids after school? Or are after-school extracurriculars the only good part of the kids day and a longer school day would hurt them there? How does he know?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mike in NC: Great, two bitter, venerated old mediocrities coming on to tell us Obama is worse than Neville Milhous Carter.
From Sarah Palin to this most recent stumble through Syria, what the fuck does McCain have to do to convince these people that he is, quite simply, not that bright? /rhetorical
SatanicPanic
@the Conster: Yup, they basically have two choices- shrinking economy or importing workers. Not surprisingly they’re opting for the former. That’s not necessarily terrible- Japan is only about two generations removed from village life. And for most memory of the late 80s bubble economy when people were drinking gold-laced champagne is a distant memory or something they never experienced. BUT they’ll probably do lots of horrible things to non-Japanese (or people who should be considered Japanese but aren’t), so it makes me nervous. They already had right-wing buses driving around blasting propaganda when I was there 6-7 years ago, and from what I hear it’s only gotten worse.
A Ghost To Most
Need to add “AS;DR” for obvious reasons
Kay
@aimai:
These ideas don’t translate well, in my experience.
“Bonuses” is another one. Manufacturing took it from executives and professionals (you know, because they all get bonuses from “merit” as we’ve learned) and it’s a fucking horrow show in practice for hourly workers.
They based them on attendence here, and it was insane. They had “perfect” and then “perfect perfect” (people actually say to me “I have perfect perfect”) but it was YEARLY, so you would lose your whole accrued bonus if you had an abscessed tooth on December 21st. Employers just manipulated it to steal from people.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Suffern ACE:
The choice of Comey is disturbing to me in part because he appears to support the strong unitary executive. Call me paranoid, but a ten year term will have him serving as head of the FBI well into the next administration. If a Republican is elected in 2016 (It could happen) then there’s a chance that something like COINTELPRO – or worse – would again be inflicted on us.
dmbeaster
@Frankensteinbeck:
More similar anecdotes. They were training their women and children to fight the anticipated American invasion of the home islands, with wooden spears. They started issuing white sheets to wear after the atomic bombings since it was observed that light clothing significantly protected more distant persons from the effect of the blast (which is true, since most of the blast energy radiates as an incredibly powerful and sudden flash of photons, leaving burn marks on the skin under clothing that matched the darker patterns of the fabric). On August 13, 1945, after both bombs had dropped and surrender was being discussed, the vice chief of the Japanese Navy’s general staff (who was most responsible for conceiving and promoting the kamikaze attacks on US warships) crashed into a government meeting with tears in his eyes to offer a plan for certain victory involving 20,000,000 sacrificing their lives in a special kamikaze attack. Source is Rhodes The Making of the Atomic Bomb
Cassidy
Can’t decide if I want a bottle of red or a bottle of white….guess it depends on my appetite.
aimai
@Kay: This makes me think of the marvellous movie “Stick It” about a group of teenaged girls in gymnastics who get so pissed off at the arbitrary way in which they are treated during competitions that they seize control of the process and decide, for themselves, who is “the best” in any given competition and “award” her the gold by throwing themselves out of contention–they do perfect routines and then show a bra strap, or stick out their tongue, or make a minor fault so that each girl is eliminated until only the one they choose gets the gold. Its too bad the workers have so little power that they can’t, basically, see how this works in practice and exploit it by refusing to compete for “perfect perfect” at all. Perfect perfect, as you say, is a rip off standard meant to steal from the workers while giving nothing but humiliation back.
Peter
@SatanicPanic: Yep. I think opening the borders is long-term inevitable, they literally can’t afford not to, but there’ll probably be a lot of pain between now and when they finally accept reality, and the inevitable violence will be worse the longer they put it off.
trollhattan
@dmbeaster:
Yup. I’ve not noticed an apology for, say, organized cannibalism of POWs by the military, for example. IIUC it was considered the ultimate dishonor to surrender, so by default a POW was inferior and fate as a slave and/or dinner entree, just and proper.
They’re not taught all that much about WWII in school (per native-born Japanese I’ve known), a bit like certain states that just might be aggregated in the southeastern part of the US are taught about the Wowha of Nawthern Aggression in school.
SatanicPanic
@WereBear: I’m not entirely convinced by a lot of that- just from talking to people of that era in Japan, by the end of the war people there was a lot of war fatigue and I don’t know how much they really were going to jump on their swords just because. Young people knew that getting drafted was a death sentence. But who knows, I’ve only talked to rural people about it and at the time they were very distant from what was going on in the cities.
Japanese people know more about the war than Americans think, because school is not the only source for historical knowledge (seriously, American school history textbooks are a pretty big joke too) and the TV covers the pretty frequent protests in Korea and China whenever some right-wing Japanese pol says something stupid.
Spaghetti Lee
@dmbeaster:
My generation associates Japan with Pokemon and Naruto and such, which makes stuff like that almost more unsettling.
fuckwit
I used to work for a Korean guy who hated the Japanese so much he wouldn’t look at or talk to them.
Surprisingly, if you rape someone’s grandma, they kind of tend to not forgive you for that so quickly.
I have heard from Chinese friends that what the Japanese did during and before WWII was way worse than what Hitler and Stalin were doing at the same time… and they somewhat resent that it didn’t generate the same level of attention and outrage.
Chris
@dmbeaster:
The Germans are pretty unique in that respect – the Japanese reaction is by far the more common one. The average American won’t boast about past atrocities like slavery or what happened to the Indians, but generally subscribes to the nothing-to-see-here, sweep-it-under-the-rug, look-forward-not-backward school of thought. And people who do miss the bad old days, even very prominent ones, aren’t hard to find over here either. The Japanese have this “comfort women” crap, we have Trent Lott saying that if we’d followed Strom Thurmond’s lead we wouldn’t have “all these problems,” Chris Christie saying that black people’s right to have rights should have been put up to a popular vote, Rand Paul opposing the Civil Rights Act, etc.
I’ve heard or read similar howls of outrage by citizens of France, Britain, Belgium etc when you suggest that there might’ve been a few atrocities in their colonies too.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Frankensteinbeck:
My dad joined the Navy in 1938. He served through the war in the Pacific from Pearl Harbor (He was stationed on the Utah) through the island hopping campaign during which he was an assault boat coxswain. He told me that there wasn’t anyone in the service who didn’t dread the invasion of the Japanese home islands. He felt that the atomic bomb was a terrible weapon, but that it had to be used to avoid worse outcomes.
An aside: he was stationed in Japan during the occupation. This was on the early Fifties. Mom, my brother and I were brought over because he was going to be stationed there at least two years. He took us to Hiroshima and we spent the day walking around in the devastation. I’ve managed to hang on to a souvenir handkerchief he bought for me during the visit.
Kay
@aimai:
Right, because THE GIRLS came up with the plan.
There’s this lack of asking that drives me crazy. The longer school day thing is a fad right now, but you had little kids.
Mine were exhausted after 6 hours of school when they were little, 5, 6,7,8. They were played out. They did OTHER THINGS after school, and not always strictly PRODUCTIVE things, either, little slackers that they were!
Isn’t an 8 hour work day an adult standard? Are we really going to cram in 2 more hours without thinking about that?
Yatsuno
@Cassidy: Why choose? Get both!
Ted Nugent is coming to Tacoma. Would it be uncivil of me to stand outside with a sign asking why he’s not dead or in jail?
RobertDSC-iMac G5
Just FYI, I’m not sure what the issue is, but reading this thread in two separate browsers(Camino 2.1.2 and Safari 5.0.6) made my iMac lock up. After restarting and using TenFourFox 17.0.6, I have a notice saying the following:
Ideas?
trollhattan
@Yatsuno:
If there’s enough space, the Ted quote on top and below, the days-late count and a message, “Tick-toc, Ted!”
Amir Khalid
@Suffern ACE:
Scully had an implanted chip removed from her shoulder in The Blessing Way. Two years later she had another chip implanted in Redux II, which brought her terminal cancer into remission. It’s not stated where the second chip was implanted; but since her head wasn’t shaved, I’m guessing it wasn’t in her brain.
/X-Files geek
aimai
@Kay: Well, I think a longer school day is a good idea–if it were done the same way upper class parents do it: interspersed with more art, excercise, free reading, dance, and sports. The fact of the matter is given the lack of childcare options for working families and with single parent families and two parent workers it would be a godsend to most families to have a longer schoolday that actually tracked the adult workday. You could achieve that very reasonably by turning the school setting into a summer camp like setting after 3:00–little kids could take naps, older kids could move on to dance and sports. It would cost a lot but, if anyone cared to check, I’m betting that for every dollar the state invested in “afterschool” activities in the arts, sciences, and sports for kids you’d probably end up being able to cut more than a dollar in social services calls for kids who are neglected, left home alone, or hurt by being unsupervised during their parents work time. Plus the knock on effect of increased time spent in a fun educational environment.
trollhattan
@fuckwit:
Japan’s right-wing on the Rape of Nanking: “didn’t happen.”
SatanicPanic
@Chris: Germany never had a nuke dropped on them. Regardless of the military utility or the wisdom of it, it’s pretty hard not to feel victimized by a weapon that wiped two cities of mostly civilians off the map.
And Germany is in a much better position with their neighbors since the rest of Europe needed them during the cold war. Japan has no friends in Asia and has to suck up to the very country that nuked them. Serves them right, but you can see how they wouldn’t be to quick to admit what they did.
ETA- I’m not try to defend Japan, I’m just agreeing this is pretty much the behavior that you’d expect. Germany is obviously a much better country for having tried to atone for what they did.
different-church-lady
BATLIGHT!
gelfling545
@the Conster: I have sometimes (I’m ashamed to say) fantasized about going from store to store sticking labels on toxic substances that say “Do not ingest by order of President Obama.” Just, you know, as as experiment.
Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)
@aimai:
Quoted for emphasis. Longer for the sake of longer isn’t helping kids become better educated. Given that art, music, and theatre are being driven out of schools, that’s not likely to happen.
Yatsuno
@SatanicPanic: It’s interesting how Japan, Korea, and China are all economically intertwined now. Officially the countries hate each other for the past, but they’re all more than willing to take each others’ money to support their own people. China passing Japan as the second largest economy is a huge thing for the Chinese, who really have a lot to be resentful for to Japan. Korea is the same way for both the other countries. There’s a lot of bloody and awful history there and it’s really much older than WWII.
Frankensteinbeck
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
My grandfather was in the Army during WWII. He served on the Eastern front and was stationed in Japan during the occupation. He saw much more action in the Korean War. Unfortunately, I know little about it. He became very senile very early, and was… not exactly a nice man to begin with.
Yatsuno
@Frankensteinbeck: My grandfather was in both the Battle of the Bulge and Korea. He has a lot of mementos from there but even to this day at 93 he still won’t talk about what happened. I choose to respect his privacy.
Keith G
@Corner Stone:
Putting up a political fight for something one believes in may be rare if one seems to believe in so little of the world of practical politics.
different-church-lady
@the Conster:
I see what you’re trying to do there, but it won’t work. All we’ll end up with is 4000-word-6-update columns once a month about why we need to defend people’s right to throw themselves in woodchippers, why Obama is shredding the constitution by trying to keep people from throwning themselves in woodchippers, and the GG Orc Army twisting themselves in knots trying to convince the entirely of the web that woodchipping one’s self is “intellectually consistent”.
WereBear
@different-church-lady: And they will call it ShredGate.
MomSense
@Suffern ACE:
Glenn is not interested in helping the progressive cause. He is not a progressive. He is a sometimes Koch funded glibertarian self promoter who fancies himself cleverer than everybody else.
He has also said some vile racist, sexist, and violent things.
gene108
@dmbeaster:
There were two Germsn responses to Nazism. The West Germans worked to weed out the things that led to it. The East Germans, as per Communist teachings, attributed Nazism to some kind of class conflict and didn’t do much else to address the issue.
Frankensteinbeck
@MomSense:
Has he? I got turned off quickly by the intellectual dishonesty and stopped reading. I never had time to run into any racism or sexism.
aimai
On the Comey thing–as well as appointing Republicans–itsn’t it the fact that Obama simply can’t get any Democrats approved for things through a process entirely controlled by the minority. He is in the position of having to put up Republicans as a way of forcing the hand of the Republican minority in the Senate. In a perfect world Obama would have come in and appointed nothing but sterling Dems and radicals but thanks to the stupid short sightedness of Reid and the Democratic Senators he has been forced to leave major positions open and leaderless for more than four years now. To the extent that he has to get any given position filled, and in a hurry, he either has to pick someone the Republicans will support or he has to give up. That’s the reality. Its not a choice between Comey and a perfect Democratic pick. Its a choice between (maybe) Comey or no one. The Republicans have shown they are perfectly capable of leaving major cabinet level positions unfilled if they want to. They simply don’t care about governing and they have nothing to lose. The rest of us do.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Frankensteinbeck:
Ouch. My father was a complex person who only felt at home in the service. He was able in that context to be solicitous and kind to those who reported to him. Not so much with the family. Add to that the long separations which led to me as the eldest child being spousified and growing up became a complicated business for us all.
Ruckus
@RSA:
Actually the answer is in your post.
Blind people are going to have a harder time making money in a sighted world. Therefore they won’t be able to give us money, therefore we don’t need to do anything for them. The market is small, how can a blind person possibly put out the level of work that we demand, so how can we be expected to hire blind people, therefore blind people don’t need to be able to operate computers.
/staunch capitalist.
Phil Perspective
@Suffern ACE: I didn’t even read GG’s piece yet I can bet one reason why he’s against Comey. You might want to look up the name Maher Arar. Research the whole story, up to the present day. But no, make stupid comments with out reading what Greenwald wrote.
? Martin
@Jay in Oregon:
Well, I’ve heard quite a few Big Problem pitches. The issue is a simple one – entrepreneurs are unwilling to make a go at actually solving these problems because:
1) We’ve so empowered the profiteers from those problems that in the name of the free market they simply crush any upstarts. We worked with Toyota on the development of the original Prius – if Toyota wasn’t the size they were and had the internal resolve to do this, it never, ever would have happened. It sure as hell couldn’t have happened in the US with the big 3. Elon Musk has been been successful at these efforts because he carries his own money and has built his own empire of tech billionaires that have his back should the entrenched interests come for him. A mere multi-millionaire never would have gotten past the first VC pitch.
2) The randians and austerians have choked off the R&D supply from the feds. I should say, they’ve choked it off relative to the size of the pool of funds going into lobbying and regulatory capture. $10M for better car batteries can go a pretty long way, but where does the money come from to battle the lies and other bullshit about exploding batteries and other proclamations of impending doom for the hybrid/plug in electric industry, or people taking up arms to protect their 100W incandescent bulbs. There’s a reason why this stuff has taken off in Cali, why the Prius is the #1 selling car the state, why we’ve gotten CFLs and low-power everything. We’ve built a regulatory system and market system here which works the opposite of the one in the rest of the country. That credit goes back to Art Rosenfeld and the governors and legislators that were smart enough to listen to him. But it’s an environment in which the Big Problem entrepreneurs, at least around energy, are rewarded rather than snuffed out. Look at the challenges for Nest – they’ve been sued and attacked – and if not for the quiet backing of Apple and others in the tech industry (Nest was founded and designed by the guy who lead up the iPod team for many years) they would have been killed by Honeywell and the others, forced out of retailers, and so on.
The problem isn’t the entrepreneurs or even the VCs. The problem is that we’ve created an environment that is toxic to anyone who wishes to enter it. Entrepreneurs and VCs are smart. They know how to read the landscape. They’re not about to march their grand idea to slaughter. There’s a TON of big ideas sitting and waiting for conditions to change. We just need to change them.
patroclus
The Medicare trust fund reported today that solvency has been extended for another 2 years – primarily because the rise in medical costs has been slowing due to the ACA and other factors.
On Comey, I like the fact that he’s a lawyer and has a lot of experience in pushing back against over-reaches by the Bush administration. Hoover certainly wasn’t a lawyer and he was FDR’s and LBJ’s FBI Director throughout both their presidencies. Specifically, he’s responsible for the Patrick Fitzgerald appointment and for making the NSA’s domestic surveillance program FISA-compliant. Obviously, he stands for an independent DOJ and presumably will also stand for an independent FBI, and he seems more likely to run the FBI rather than letting the FBI run him. Plus, he’s confirmable and has Holder’s support and the appointment is in the long tradition of bi-partisan appointments (LaHood, Gates, Huntsman in Obama’s first term and Hagel and Comey in the 2nd term).
Phil Perspective
@aimai: In a perfect world Obama would have come in and appointed nothing but sterling Dems and radicals but thanks to the stupid short sightedness of Reid and the Democratic Senators he has been forced to leave major positions open and leaderless for more than four years now.
What was Obama’s last job before be became President? So, he was certainly aware of what the score was, so to speak.
MomSense
@Frankensteinbeck:
Here is a link talking about just one example.
http://thegrio.com/2012/01/02/glenn-greenwald-defends-obama-could-rape-a-nun-attack/
Chyron HR
@Phil Perspective:
Oh, gee, you know, I would have given Greenwald a fair chance on this issue, but then I asked myself, “What would Glenn want me to do?” So I read a one-sided polemic by someone with a ideological chip on his shoulder and called it a day.
Yatsuno
@Chyron HR: I see the howler monkey Batsignal has been unleashed. PROTECT SAINT GLENN FROM ALL ATTACKERS FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC!
Svensker
@imonlylurking:
How cute is that? ! ? !
Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)
@? Martin:
Sounds like a problem with the VCs and entrepreneurs.
Hill Dweller
@Phil Perspective:
There is no precedent for what the Republicans have done since Obama became President. None.
I’m so fucking tired of seeing people blame Republican insanity on Obama’s lack of leadership and/or coping skills.
WereBear
I SO understand that. To this day I have a struggle with performance anxiety because I was thrown in at the deep end with no instructions. Any minute now, someone is going to show up, yell at me for not knowing what “everyone knows” and something horrible will happen and it will be All My Fault.
Well…
I’ve gotten better.
low-tech cyclist
Good Lord. The people responsible for this place ought to be sentenced to life without parole in their own prison. Without any improvements to conditions, of course – just move the current inmates out, so they don’t have to suffer along with the people who created this monstrosity.
Excuse me while I step over to the SPLC website and donate some money.
aimai
@Phil Perspective:How does Senator Obama’s experience with the Senate enable President Obama to persuade the Senate Dems to strip all Senators of a cherished prerogative that creates power for individual Senators? You do realize that it is the Senate Dems who have consistently refused to end the filibuster because they themselves use it, or the threat of it, constantly to create a bargaining position where none would exist otherwise.
PsiFighter37
@aimai: Hopefully it’s some kind of 11-dimension chess move to shove in one crappy piece (Comey) with EPA, CPB, and DC Circuit nominees. Just make the GOP look even more stupid when they start filibustering everything just because.
And then nuke their asses and roll everyone right through the ashes of the filibuster. Obama should get Gordon Liu in there as part of it, just to spit on the GOP for being a bunch of assholes.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
@aimai:
Just to interject with what I remember as a kid, because both of my parents worked, I would go to after-school care when the school day was done until about (I think) fifth grade. So it would be school until 3:00 pm or so, and then going down the hall to after-school care for goofing around until my mom or dad picked me up.
(Trivia: I was going to a failing Catholic school in the 1970s and they rented the basement of it to a fledgling theater troupe called Steppenwolf. Yes, that Steppenwolf. We used to go down there and mess around with their props until they figured it out and started locking the door.)
TG Chicago
@Suffern ACE:
He has done so on occasion. He supported Mukasey initially (he probably regrets that now), and he has spoken in favor of Diane Wood for Supreme Court and was positive towards the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor.
EDIT: Also, too — Feingold and Whitehouse, as memory serves.
? Martin
@Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS):
Why would they spend the money and time to bring an idea to market knowing that Exxon is going to kill it – and then probably steal the idea? And they’ll have the tea party cheering them on, building fake grass-roots groups, and ⅓ of Congress on TV demonizing them for trying.
Cassidy
@Yatsuno: Just add a “you promised” at the end.
MikeJ
@aimai:
Mr. Uppity should have known what would happened and not run for president. Then that dreamy Ron Paul would have harnessed the energy of the youth vote and swept to power making everything right.
JWL
There’s an episode of the old Barney Miller show in which a tenant tells his slumlord, “I’ve had rats for so long that I’ve given some of them names”, to which the slumlord hisses, “I said no pets”.
Mnemosyne
@Phil Perspective:
You’re going to have to be more specific, because a quick Google of Comey’s and Arar’s names together turned up nothing. He’s not mentioned in the Wikipedia article as being involved in the Arar case at all.
If your point is that Greenwald doesn’t think that anyone who ever worked for the Bush administration in any capacity should have a job, then Greenwald needs to put a few candidates forward, because it’s pretty difficult to have a head of the FBI who’s never worked for the government or law enforcement before.
Ruckus
@aimai:
This. A thousand times this.
Chris
@gene108:
Although as I recall, there were lower level Nazis who were tolerated in the West German government after the war, especially in the security services because of their presumed skill at catching Reds. Though to be fair, the French, Italian and Japanese governments had similar arrangements and the Americans didn’t exactly discourage the whole thing.
The East Germans weren’t entirely wrong in their analysis either; fear of class war is exactly what motivated German elites to support the Nazis.
MomSense
@aimai:
To me it seems like the nominations have been appropriate so far. Hagel would not have been a good fit for HHS but I like him for Defense. I also thought Gates was a great choice at Defense since his presence in the administration was reassuring to many in the military (he was to the left of Bernie Sanders on closing Gitmo btw) and probably helped ease the anxiety around the preparations for repeal of DADT.
I actually am probably the only Democrat who was not thrilled with Clinton at State-but I was looking at the record in places that are not on the radar screen for most like Honduras.
Corner Stone
@MomSense:
Really? I’ve never heard this. Where can I read more on this?
Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)
@? Martin: Why wouldn’t they innovate to change the culture? Of course, if you can sell a tumblr for 1.1 billion, why fuck with the poor?
ETA: all of which to say that “it’s too hard!” is a bullshit excuse.
Suffern ACE
@Mnemosyne: oddly GG didn’t mention it in the column either. Should have taken that bet.
Corner Stone
@aimai:
This is fantastic.
Corner Stone
@patroclus:
I’m sorry, but the “long tradition of bi-partisan appointments”. Really?
lamh35
@Amir Khalid: speaking of X-Files, I know the 2 movies weren’t blockbusters by any means, but am I the only one who needs more Mulder & Scully in my life right now???
A 3rd movie may alleviate that want.
Mnemosyne
@Suffern ACE:
I was pretty sure I wouldn’t need to get out of the boat.
Richard W. Crews
your new site layout SUCKS! It’s not worth reading the way you have it laid out. I get a column ONE word wide, so I have to scroll for every paragraph, surrounded by vast fields og blank white. Do you ever look at your own site?
Cacti
@the Conster:
The Japanese have long had a streak of denialism about the extent of their WWII atrocities.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@RSA: I started out naively thinking that it ought to be easy to find support for research and development on making it easier for blind people to use modern computers–not so, and I don’t entirely understand why not.
Because it’s no one’s buzz word. The VC work on the herd mentality above anything else.
? Martin
@Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS):
It’s not a matter of ‘too hard’. It’s a matter of having government rigging the game against you and in favor of the folks writing the lobbyist checks. On a level playing field, they’re happy to take on Exxon. It’s not level. It’s not even close to level.
different-church-lady
@Phil Perspective:
Nope, no irony here. None.
Robert Sneddon
@Chris: What happened to that murdering Nazi bastard Von Braun after the war? Hanged for mass murder, I hope.
No?
Cacti
@Mnemosyne:
Glenn should be our philosopher king.
Narcissus
The Japanese are going to start making life-like androids to maintain a functioning population and eventually all Japanese people will be androids. It’ll be awesome.
Amir Khalid
@lamh35:
No, you aren’t. Last year would have been the right time for a movie, given the Smoking Man’s prediction in the last episode of the show. Mulder and Scully could have defeated the very last remnants of the Syndicate, been reunited with William, and had a nice if somewhat overdue wedding. But no, Fox had to go and screw up on marketing the second movie.
@Richard W. Crews:
You should email John Cole with your complaint. He is always happy to receive commenter feedback. Go to the Contact box in the right-hand column, click on “Select an Author”, and select his name from the drop-down menu.
Mnemosyne
@Robert Sneddon:
“Our Nazis are better than their Nazis.”
Mnemosyne
@Richard W. Crews:
Make sure you have “Zoom Text Only” selected in the View menu of your browser, or else the columns do very funky things when you try to make the text bigger.
different-church-lady
@Richard W. Crews:
Have
you
considered
something
might
be
wrong
with
your
browser
and
not
the
site?
different-church-lady
@Robert Sneddon: In fact, went to work for the US Army and NASA.
Is this some kind of analogy to Obama bringing in Comey?
different-church-lady
@Amir Khalid:
You! Knock it off!
Omnes Omnibus
@Richard W. Crews: It isn’t that way for everyone.
? Martin
@RSA:
Where’s the business here? Blind people are a limited market with limited funds. Now, if the EEOC would mandate that employers provide it for blind people (or provide a funding pool for this research) then it might happen, but Congress is still in starve the beast mode. EEOC is unlikely to have the money or power to do this. It could come from the health care side, but that’s all in transition as well. It’s hard to see a payoff here – and entrepreneurs need a payoff. That doesn’t mean that more money need to come out of people’s pockets, as any disruptive technology is by definition cheaper (in aggregate) than the industry it’s disrupting, but the market needs to have mechanisms to make that payoff happen. And one big problem with government regulatory bodies is that they’re slow to adopt new solutions and even slower at abandoning the ones the new solutions are designed to replace. So if you are relying on a regulatory structure to make that payoff happen, that alone is a very risky proposition.
And in the case of the computer market, you’re going to be very dependent on that solution being adopted either by Apple/MS/Google, or the OEMs, or software makers. You might get Apple on board, but you’ll never get the other groups to coordinate because they have economic incentives not to coordinate, and frankly the PC industry is horrifically broken. When the research breakthrough is seen as the easy part, that’s when you can pretty much count on entrepreneurship to die.
But, if you’re serious about it, talk to Apple. It’s the only avenue which is going to actually get to market. Apple is still interested in cornering sub-markets, they’ve done pretty decent work on this front anyway, and they sure as hell have the cash to back such an effort.
Amir Khalid
@different-church-lady:
Sowwy.
Todd
@ShadeTail:
We see the results of this sanitization with our own “Lost Cause” fantasists/fetishists of the South. They now form the nexus of the TeaBirchers.
patroclus
@Corner Stone: Yeah, really. Presidents not named Bush have typically named appointments of the opposing party throughout U.S. history to high level positions. It’s a good way of de-partisanizing the lens through which the position is evaluated and of converting erstwhile opponents into allies. In Churchill’s phrase (regarding Lord Beaverbrook), sometimes it’s better to have them pissing out than pissing in. Wilson had his Hoover, FDR had his Stimson and Wallace, Truman had Ike, JFK his William McChesney Martin, Carter had Schlesinger, Clinton had Cohen; the list goes on and on. Disregarding Nixon, there’s nothing particularly partisan about the FBI directorship – it’s more about law and order and the rule of law. Comey’s detailed history in standing up the the worst excesses of the Bush administration fits this profile quite well.
SatanicPanic
@Yatsuno: The entertainment industry is bringing people together, right wing pols are trying to force them apart. Hmm, where else is like that?
WereBear
@Todd: Denial. That’s the really tough drug to kick.
Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)
@? Martin:
So change it. That’s what I’m saying. Surely they can innovate some way out of this tangle, or are they just not smart enough, or too busy enough building a new Instagram?
burnspbesq
@Suffern ACE:
Name an available Democrat with the right chops for the job. Mary Jo White is otherwise occupied right now. Jamie Gorelick? Umm, if it’s all the same to you, no thanks.
patroclus
@burnspbesq: I’m not sure he’s a Democrat, but Patrick Fitzgerald would have been a good choice too. Comey’s got much more experience at Main Justice, but Fitz arguably has more in-field experience. Both opposed the wretched excesses of the Bush-era Justice Department; which shows independence and courage.
the Conster
@different-church-lady: LOL
@gelfling545: LOL
@Yatsuno: LOL
Mnemosyne
@patroclus:
Fitzgerald is a lifelong Republican, which is a pretty ballsy thing to be when you’re based out of Chicago.
RSA
@Walker et al.: Thanks for your comments; they’ve helped me think about the issues in a bit more detail.
@? Martin: I agree Apple has done good things (in part by adopting ideas from research labs, though, without funding the work). I’ve had some luck in this area with Google funding, which I’ve been happy with.
ShadeTail
@Todd:
Very true.
Chris
@patroclus:
Bush yes, but Reagan as well, no? I can’t remember any prominent Democrats in his administration. That was pretty much the beginning of the “party loyalty above all” phase of the party.
CommishTheFirst
Fun nutpicking at the foxnews.com thread on the IRS linedancing story. Actual unedited sequence of comment and reply:
>
JulieCorum2
2 hours ago
I don’t condone what’s been going on with the IRS, but this was part of a training conference, probably designed to insert a little humor into an otherwise boring session. No, I am not a liberal, but I have to say this is one case where Fox News is blowing things out of proportion.
skippercarb
2 hours ago
@JulieCorum2 Sure. And Kristallnacht was a bunch of Amish kids out “Wilding”.
>
trollhattan
@CommishTheFirst:
Godwin wept.
patroclus
@Chris: Well, William Bennett was technically a Dem when Reagan appointed him as Education Secretary but he switched parties shortly thereafter. And Jeane Kirkpatrick had been a Dem before she went to the UN. And C. Everett Koop had historically associated with Dems prior to becoming Surgeon General although I suppose he was technically non-partisan and was clearly an abortion-opposing Reagan backer prior to the 1980 campaign. Reagan’s record was not good at bi-partisanship, but it wasn’t entirely non-existent. W. had Norman Mineta and that was it.
Corner Stone
@patroclus:
Really? Besides the hospital alley where he threatened to resign?
Besides that? Beyond that, I mean?
JWL
@Robert Sneddon: Von Braun wrote an account of his career as a rocketeer. It dealt primarily with his years in America and was entitled, ‘I Aim For The Stars.
Comedian Mort Sahl wisecracked its full title should have read: ‘I Aim For The Stars But Sometimes Hit London’.
patroclus
@Corner Stone: Yes, really. As I explained earlier, Comey was responsible for the appointment and re-appointment of Patrick Fitzgerald, who investigated the Valerie Plame outing and, importantly, Comey backed him up repeatedly throughout the investigation. And he also threatened to lead mass DOJ resignations in standing up to the Cheney/Gonzalez efforts to ignore FISA, the time-limits prescribed therein and the FISA court itself thereby making the surveillance program FISA-compliant in accordance with the rule of law. Not surprisingly, GG’s spin is completely opposite the actual facts.
Mike in NC
@trollhattan: A recent newspaper photo of some local Tea Party geezers showed one of them holding up a sign that read “Obama uses the IRS like Hitler used the SS”. Those people are insane, but we already knew that.
Odie Hugh Manatee
OT:
Cutest thing I just saw…
The 6 year old neighbor boy is outside and his Dad is working in the front yard. The kids comes walking down the sidewalk, arms extended and legs stiff, Frankenstein-like, being followed by one of the neighborhood girls, repeating in a dull voice:
“Help me Dad, she’s asking too many questions.”
Regarding GG’s latest blather…
DC:DR
Don’t Care:Didn’t Read
Martin Ranger
@MomSense:
And James Comey is a Progressive’s wet dream, because, well, OBAMA!
Corner Stone
@patroclus: Wait a second. A Republican backed up a Republican? Damn, that’s stiff!
And, oh, he “threatened” mass resignations? Damn! That guy is something else.
Of course, he’s nothing like what you depict, either. What he objected to, exactly, is still TBD since we decided to look forward and have no actual idea how bad the actual program was.
But hey, I’m sure Comey is a real defender of rights and all. I mean, I’ll just take your word for it instead of his actual record the ACLU cites in their objections.
You clearly have more credibility in this matter than they do.
Robert Waldmann
My thought on Wonkette was that they are being extremely unfair. Greenwald just wants the US government to treat the bill of rights, Geneva conventions as UN convention as binding rules not as suggestions. No I didn’t chose to trot on over to Greenwald’s blog to read it myself. I blame myself.
I keep telling myself I should read Glenn Greenwald (and lose 10 pounds).
OK maybe that’s enough to humiliate myself into actually reading a Greenwald post (less painful than losing 10 pounds anyway).
Robert Waldmann
There I did it. Read the whole Greenwald post on Comey. I’m still over weight, but I feel better. I don’t know how to say this (misery loves company?) but I strongly recommend trotting over there and reading it. The post is balanced with repeated praise of Comey (and the claim that the New York Times overstated Comey’s role in approving torture). Greenwald’s conclusion is that we can do better.
I’m not even sure he has any other than flattering views about Comey’s character. Greenwald, to his credit, tends to stick to facts and avoids mind reading, as in “no one on earth is good enough for Glenn except Glenn,” (I don’t deny that’s amusing). To attempt to mind read (to my discredit) I think his point is that we should repudiate the Bush administration’s assault on the constitution and nominating someone who threatened to resign then compromised and didn’t ever actually resign sends the wrong signal.
Mnemosyne
@Robert Waldmann:
I’m sorry, but that’s just silly. We’re supposed to reject a qualified candidate because he stayed within the Bush administration and fought against what they wanted to do rather than resigning and letting someone else implement all of the stuff he was trying to prevent?
mclaren
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
Yay! More epistemic closure!
Let’s all cheer the effort to turn the Democratic party into a clone of the crazy Republican party by tuning out all criticism and ignoring all dissenting voices.
mclaren
@Brandon:
As Paul Graham’s Hierarchy of Disagreement shows, you’ve just shown your intellectual bankruptcy by falling into the familiar fallacy of “responding to tone.” This is the typical last resort of someone who violently dislikes the facts and logic of a debate opponent, but who can’t come up with any facts or logic to rebut them.
A genuinely wise and insightful commentator has already written about this prevailing tendency to criticize the tone of their opponents, rather than their arguments:
That genuinely wise and insightful commentator is, of course (wait for it) Glenn Greenwald (“How Noam Chomsky is discussed: The more one dissents from political orthodoxies, the more the attacks focus on personality, style and character,” The Guardian, 23 March 2013.).
mclaren
@Mnemosyne:
By your intellectually bankrupt logic, the officials who presided over Vichy France during the German occupation were heroes, while the French resistance fighters were contemptible gutless cowards who deserve our condemnation. Those pissant French resistance fighters accomplished nothing, while the Vichy bureaucrats fought from within!
Leave it to Mnemosyne to invert reality so that anyone who shows principles and courage is a scumbag, while the quislings of the world are those who deserve our applause.
Corner Stone
@Mnemosyne:
Qualified in what way, exactly?
And the praise is coming his way because he “threatened” resignation. So, it’s pretty clear that is a point of contention that should be considered.
Corner Stone
Again. We’re praising a Republican nominee for the head of the FBI.
Mainly just because Obama.
That’s all.
If you used any type of balance there would be his actions during his tenure in the GWB admin on one side…and he’s Obama’s choice on the other side.
That’s all.
mclaren
@Corner Stone:
If you continue to criticize obots and question Obama’s supposed progressive magnificence, you’ll no longer be one of those Very Serious People Paul Krugman likes to talk about.
Better watch it, buddy.
Mnemosyne
@mclaren:
So if Claus von Stauffenberg had been a true hero, he would have resigned his commission in the German army and fought with the resistance rather than participating in the plot to assassinate Hitler?
mclaren
@Mnemosyne:
So now trying to assassinate the leader of your country is your definition of “working within the system,” eh?
Great job, Mnemosyne! I look forward to you applauding the patriotism of all those Teahadist survivalist lunatics sending death threats to Obama because they’re heroes who are “working within the system” to bring about change…
Holy crap.
Do you people really call this “thinking”?
Do you people even listen to the demented tripe that comes out of your mouths? Or are all the obots just on auto-pilot, parrotting boilerplate soundbites that come out of the White House…?
cleek
Ummm?????
https://balloon-juice.com/2011/05/22/country-first-5/#comment-2598977
Paul in KY
@Flying Squirrel Girl: Glad you got to see them. I’ve been told Gogol Bordello is insane in a live performance.