Lots to choose from (3,781 products so far), and they’re selling well.
Bird Flu Getting Closer
The avian flu has moved from third world countries to second world countries. Specifically, it’s arrived in Germany. Only two swans affected so far, but it’s only a matter of time.
I have to run to the ATM machine and stock up on canned goods.
Atomic Bomb Photo
This is what an atomic bomb blast looks like within the first few microseconds of detonation. It was taken from 7 miles away with a special camera capable of shutter speeds at 1/100,000th of a second. Note the size of the shed at the base (for perspective). More photos here:
Via Cynical-C Blog.
No, Scalia — You’re The Idiot!
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said that I’m an idiot.
People who believe the Constitution would break if it didn’t change with society are "idiots," U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says.
In a speech Monday sponsored by the conservative Federalist Society, Scalia defended his long-held belief in sticking to the plain text of the Constitution "as it was originally written and intended."
… Scalia criticized those who believe in what he called the "living Constitution."
"That’s the argument of flexibility and it goes something like this: The Constitution is over 200 years old and societies change. It has to change with society, like a living organism, or it will become brittle and break."
"But you would have to be an idiot to believe that," Scalia said. "The Constitution is not a living organism, it is a legal document. It says something and doesn’t say other things."
The theory of a living constitution isn’t really a theory at all. Instead, it is a phrase used to describe a Constitution whose boundaries and provisions are dynamic and amorphous, congruent with whatever the needs of society may be at a particular moment. The Constitution is broad and general, rather than possessing a fixed and definitive meaning.
Simple-minded Scalia says that the Constitution "says something and doesn’t say other things", which is true, but of course, the problem is not what it says but what it means. It is easy to demonstrate Scalia’s amateurish analysis by using the simple example of the Eighth Amendment, which forbids "cruel and unusual" punishment.
Yes, we can all agree what the Eighth Amendment says . . . but does it mean??? What is "cruel and unusual" where punishment is concerned? The Framers were smart enough not to lay down specifics. Because what was "cruel and unusual" in 1781 is probably not "cruel and unusual" today. And they knew that.
The "living Constitution" is what enables the judiciary to be reasonable. It’s what makes Plessy v. Ferguson fall and Brown v. Board of Education rise. It’s what makes it illegal for people to have thermonuclear weapons despite the Second Amendment.
The Framers of the Constitution were smart enough to know that they were not omnipotent. They wrote a flexible document for the ages. Just as architects the framework of a skyscraper flexible so that it moves with the end (rather than crumble), so too does the Constitution. It’s the strict constructionists, like Scalia, who are the rigid idiots.
Of course, it should be stressed that Scalia is quite happy to "read into" the Constitution when it suits him. For example, the Constitution says in Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 that Congress has the power:
"To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes."
What is "commerce . . . among the several states" (also known as "interstate commerce")? What does that mean?
Well, look at this Scalia quote from just one month ago, in his dissent in Gonzales v. Oregon:
From an early time in our national history, the Federal Government has used its enumerated powers, such as its power to regulate interstate commerce, for the purpose of protecting public morality–for example, by banning the interstate shipment of lottery tickets, or the interstate transport of women for immoral purposes. Unless we are to repudiate a long and well-established principle of our jurisprudence, using the federal commerce power to prevent assisted suicide is unquestionably permissible.
[Emphasis added]
That’s right. According to Scalia, the Constitution actually says that Congress (under their federal commerce power) can prevent assisted suicide.
So, in summary, the Constitution is actually a "living Constitution" when Scalia wants it to be.
LATE ADDITION: David Bernstein at The Volokh Conspiracy writes:
So remind me again, Justice Scalia, how putting people in jail for the noncommercial cultivation and use of marijuana in California by California residents for medical purposes as allowed by California law comes within Congress’s power to "regulate commerce … among the several states." Unless you were an advocate of the "argument of flexibility" and the idea that the Constitution "has to change with society like a living organism," you would have to be an idiot to believe that the Necessary and Proper Clause somehow allows Congress to also regulate noncommercial intrastate activity with no substantial effect on interstate commerce, no?
Yup.
The Cult Of Bush
Glenn Greenwald has written the seminal post on the "Cult Of Bush", and everybody is talking about it:
"The blind faith placed in the Federal Government, and particularly in our Commander-in-Chief, by the contemporary "conservative" is the very opposite of all that which conservatism has stood for for the last four decades. The anti-government ethos espoused by Barry Goldwater and even Ronald Reagan is wholly unrecognizable in Bush followers, who – at least thus far – have discovered no limits on the powers that ought to be vested in George Bush to enable him to do good on behalf of all of us.And in that regard, people like Michelle Malkin, John Hinderaker, Jonah Goldberg and Hugh Hewitt are not conservatives. They are authoritarian cultists. Their allegiance is not to any principles of government but to strong authority through a single leader…And as excessive as the Bush Administration’s measures have been thus far — they overtly advocate the right to use war powers against American citizens on American soil even if Congress bans such measures by law — I am quite certain that people like John Hinderaker, Jonah Goldberg and Jeff Goldstein, to name just a few, are prepared to support far, far more extreme measures than the ones which have been revealed thus far. And while I would not say this for Jeff or perhaps of Jonah, I believe quite firmly that there are no limits – none – that Hinderaker (or Malkin or Hewitt) would have in enthusiastically supporting George Bush no matter how extreme were the measures which he pursued…If it now places one "on the Left" to oppose unrestrained power and invasiveness asserted by the Federal Government along with lawlessness on the part of our highest government officials, so be it. The rage-based reverence for The President as Commander-in-Chief — and the creepy, blind faith vested in his goodness — is not a movement I recognize as being political, conservative or even American."
Salon’s Peter Daou adds the coda:
The attempt to marginalize progressive bloggers as part of an angry, unwashed, irrational mob is in full swing, but truth-telling has a self-sustaining power. Bloggers will continue to cut through the fabricated storylines, providing clarity, sanity, honesty, and an abiding loyalty to the Constitution and to the principles our country is founded upon.
History will look kindly on them.
White House Blaming The Victim
UPDATE: The victim, Harry Whittington, had a heart attack caused by one of the pellets.
The White House blamed the 78-year-old man whom Vice President Dick Cheney shot during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas for the incident, as officials struggled Monday to explain why they waited nearly 24 hours before making the news public.
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan tried to absolve Cheney of blame for shooting wealthy Austin lawyer Harry Whittington, saying that hunting "protocol was not followed by Mr. Whittington when it came to notifying others that he was there. And so, you know, unfortunately, these types of hunting accidents happen from time to time."
Fortunately, the excuse ain’t flyin’.
Several hunting experts were skeptical of McClellan’s explanation. They said Cheney might have violated a cardinal rule of hunting: Know your surroundings before you pull the trigger.
"Particularly identify the game that you are shooting and particularly identify your surroundings, that it’s safe to shoot," said Mark Birkhauser, the incoming president of the International Hunter Education Association, a group of fish and wildlife agencies. "Every second, you’re adjusting your personal information that it is a safe area to shoot or it’s not a safe area to shoot."
Safe-hunting rules published by the National Rifle Association and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department echo Birkhauser’s advice.
United Arab Emerates To Handle American Ports
This seems like a really bad idea:
A company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six American ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism.
The Bush administration considers the UAE an important ally in the fight against terrorism since the suicide hijackings and is not objecting to Dubai Ports World’s purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.
The $6.8 billion sale could be approved Monday and would affect commercial port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.
DP World said it won approval from a secretive U.S. government panel that considers security risks of foreign companies buying or investing in American industry.
The Wiretapping Leak Does NOT Help al Qaeda
Larry Johnson, a former CIA officer and former instructor for the U.S. State Department’s Anti-Terrorism Training Program explains why:
FACT 1: [NY Times reporter James] Risen did not reveal how the domestic electronic surveillance was being conducted. He may know specifically what they are doing, but he did not and has not disclosed the methodology used. What was disclosed is that the President was ignoring the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution and the FISA court.
***
FACT 2: Al Qaeda, according to its own training manual, was instructing its members in the early 1990s to be aware that the U.S. intelligence apparatus would try to listen in on their conversations and to take counter measures to avoid detection. One of these measures was the use of code words to disguise the conversation. Got it? They knew we were listening 15 years ago. Risen’s revelations only hurt the President, not the terrorists.
Get it? Got it? Good.
FISA Court Flashback
Gotta love the commenters at Free Republic.
Via Glenn Greenwald, a hilarious 2000 Free Republic article on the dire threat to American civil liberties posed by Bill Clinton’s use of "a secret court" that has "authorized all but one of over 7,500 requests to spy in the name of National Security." The court in question is, of course, the FISA Court. The freepers are outraged:
This is beyond frightening. Thank you for this find. . . .
Franz Kafka would have judged this to wild to fictionalize. But for us – it’s real. . . .
Any chance of Bush rolling some of this back? It sounds amazing on its face. Why didn’t Wen Ho Lee just "disappear" into one of these Star Chambers, never to return? . . .
This is one of those ideas that has a valid purpose behind it, but is wide open to terrible abuse. And there’s no way to check to see if it is abused.
Like all things that don’t have the light of day shining on them, you can be sure that it is being twisted to suit the purposes of those who hold the power.
Today, of course, the restrictions of the FISA Court are far too onerous and the president should have absolutely unchecked power to do whatever he wants.
From the GOP Playbook
In Election 2004, Bush/Rove played the homophobia card. Bush condemned gay marriage, and that ignited homophobia from "middle America". So they voted Bush into office so that he could do nothing about gay marriage (but he did give tax cuts to upper-income American).
Looks like we’re going to see the same thing again this election year.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday he plans a vote in early June on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, a move likely to fail but sure to spark a fiery election-year debate.
Frist, a Tennessee Republican, told CNN he’s planning the vote for the week of June 5 because he wants to deal with the issue "as early as possible" before the Senate calendar fills up in a busy election year.
Frist said he doesn’t know how many votes the ban will receive, but Republican and Democratic aides privately acknowledged the vote will probably fall far short of the 67-vote supermajority needed to advance a constitutional amendment.
When the Senate last voted on the issue in July 2004, a procedural motion to consider the ban received 48 votes — well short of the number needed to send it on to the House of Representatives and then to all 50 states for ratification.
A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, charged that Frist is wasting valuable time on the Senate floor in order to rally conservative voters in the midterm elections.
"At a time when we have so many other pressing issues facing the country, I’m not sure where this falls in the list of priorities," said Reid spokesman Jim Manley.
Frist has been mentioned as a potential presidential candidate in 2008, but a poll taken in December showed him trailing several other possible GOP nominees.
Republican supporters of the constitutional ban insist they are not motivated by the politics of the issue and are solely focused on keeping the matter on the national agenda, hoping they can get closer to 67 votes over the next few years.
Cheney’s Got A Gun
Been a busy weekend for me, as I’m appearing in "Sordid Live" (see advert at right for more information). Then I got stomach flu. Ugh.
But at least I didn’t shoot anybody in the face!
The Smoking Gun has the accident report.
Ironically, on March 17, 2005, I blogged this.
Paul Begala, a Texas hunter himself, writes:
It is not best practice – in fact it’s unsafe – to send 3 guns into the field and to chase 2 coveys at once. I would never – ever – go chasing a second covey while someone else was occupied with a first covey. My experience is that safe quail hunters generally hunt no more than 2 guns in the field at a time, and chase one covey at a time. To do otherwise is reckless.
AmericaBlog is calling it Cheney’s Chappaquiddick.
Think Progress explains the law that Cheney broke.
MSNBC quips:
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced today that his department would immediately implement a “Cheney Alert” system to warn Americans if an attack by the vice president is imminent.
Even Konservative Korner Kid John Podheretz can’t diminish the Cheney story:
This story is a very big deal, despite all the mitigating factors — the accident involved a friend, his medical team was right there to help, and all that. Something like this has never happened before, and it is a genuinely disturbing thing to think that the vice president of the United States actually shot somebody last weekend, even for fans of his. It’s disturbing as well that there was a news blackout that lasted nearly a day about this serious incident. It seems beyond question that the vice president is going to have to go before the cameras, explain what happened, and show genuine remorse for his actions, however inadvertent. It’s a difficult challenge for someone as reticent as Dick Cheney. But unless he does so, and makes a good showing of it, he will be damaged goods for the remainder of the Bush presidency.
…. but he’s getting hell for saying that.
Meanwhile, Powerline Paul is ho-humming the whole thing, and yes, blaming the media:
The press corps’ over-the-top reaction to this event reflects two things, I think: the reporters’ detestation of the administration, and their ignorance of firearms. If Cheney had been trout fishing and a companion had walked behind him as he started to cast, so that he inadvertently snagged his friend, resulting in a hospital visit, would we have seen this kind of frenzy? I don’t think so. I think we’re seeing, among other things, the press corps’ innate ignorance of, and hostility to, firearms coming through.
Yes. The reason why the media is making a big deal about the Vice-President shooting someone is because of their "ignorance of firearms". Don’t they know that guns shoot people all the time??
Wonkette provides a handy-dandy reference for Cheney wannabes:
The Quote Of The Day goes to former Reagan press secretary and gun control advocate Jim Brady, in a press release, referring to Cheney’s accidental shooting of a hunting companion:
"Now I understand why Dick Cheney keeps asking me to go hunting with him."
And for you hunters out there, here are the Texas Parks and Wildlife Hunter Education guidelines…
Rules Hunters Can Live By . . . Ten Commandments of Shooting Safety
1. Always point the muzzle in a safe direction.2. Treat every firearm or bow with the same respect you would show a loaded gun or nocked arrow.
3. Be sure of your target and what is in front of and beyond your target.
Before you pull the trigger you must properly identify game animals. Until your target is fully visible and in good light, do not even raise your scope to see it. Use binoculars! Know what is in front of and behind your target. Determine that you have a safe backstop or background. Since you do not know what is on the other side, never take a shot at any animals on top of ridges or hillsides. Know how far bullets, arrows and pellets can travel. Never shoot at flat, hard surfaces, such as water, rocks or steel because of ricochets.4. Unload firearms and unstring conventional bows when not in use.
5. Handle the firearms, arrows and ammunition carefully.
Avoid horseplay with firearms. Never climb a fence, a tree or a ladder with a loaded firearm or bow and arrows. Never jump a ditch or cross difficult terrain with a loaded firearm or nocked arrow. Never face or look down the barrel from the muzzle end. Be sure the only ammunition you carry correctly matches the gauge or caliber you are shooting. Always carry arrows in a protected cover or quiver. Learn the proper carries. Try to use the two-hand carry whenever possible because it affords you the best muzzle control. Always carry handguns with hammers over an empty chamber or cylinder. If you fall, be sure to disassemble the gun and check the barrel from the breech end for obstructions. Carry a field cleaning kit.6. Know your safe zone-of-fire and stick to it.
Your safe zone-of-fire is that area or direction in which you can safely fire a shot. It is “down range” at a shooting facility. In the field it is that mental image you draw in your mind with every step you take. Be sure you know where your companions are at all times. Never swing your gun or bow out of your safe zone-of-fire. Know the safe carries when there are persons to your sides, in front of, or behind you. If in doubt, never take a shot. When hunting, wear daylight fluorescent orange so you can be seen from a distance or in heavy cover.7. Control your emotions when it comes to safety.
8. Wear hearing and eye protection.
9. Don’t drink alcohol or take drugs before or while handling firearms or bow and arrows.
10. Be aware of additional circumstances which require added caution or safety awareness.
Guess What? Kaye Grogan Is Angry
Today, it’s at ABC . . . I think.
Shame on the Super Bowl coordinators for lining up several notables to be recognized just before the National Anthem Sunday, but failing to mention our troops for a job well done.
The troops are done? Cool.
By the way, Kaye, the National Anthem? Kind of a tribute to war. Just sayin’….
How would you like to be within one step of being blown up stepping on hidden land mines or reaching out to tenderly touch the head of a child secretly wired up with explosives, for ingrates back home?
Chldren’s heads are being secretly wired with explosives for ingrates back home? Assuming that I am one of the "ingrates" that Kaye is referring to, can I just say something? Whoever is secretly wiring children’s heads on my behalf, please don’t do that anymore. Thanks.
And shame on ABC for ignoring this oversight or should I say over slight?
Kaye is the next Oscar Wilde.
But let’s skip down a bit:
There have been wars and rumors of war since the beginning of time, and no amount of antiwar demonstrations are going to stop wars.
Right. Fuck it. Let’s have a war ALL the time, for ANY reason.
(Pssst, Kaye. There are going to be abortions too, regardless of what law is on the books. So maybe you should stop demonstrating against those, eh?)
The liberal news media, both in print and broadcasting, wouldn’t understand war unless like Bob Woodruff they are in the middle of unfriendly gunfire, and take a direct hit nearly killing them.
But Bob Woodruff was nearly killed in Iraq. So I guess, um, the liberal news media does understand war now. Right?
If the biased media would spend half as much time and effort building up our military’s confidence as they do painting them as women and baby killers, they could help build up their morale.
That’s right. By building up the military’s confidence, we build up the military’s morale.
If there are documents to back-up the allegations that Saddam Hussein was involved with helping to train terrorists, they need to be released to the public ASAP. While I realize many documents are too sensitive and would compromise national security, the innuendoes and rumors surrounding the former Iraqi leader needs authentication, to prove once and for all — the reason President Bush felt the need to deploy our troops to Iraq, was warranted and legitimate.
B-b-b-b-but, Kaye. You’re willing to sacrifice national security just to show that Bush was right?
Anyway, skipping below even more, we come to a Kaye Grogan run-on sentence:
If the Clinton Administration had been doing their job, — perhaps the tragedy at the Twin Towers, Pentagon, and the plane piloted by crazed terrorists that went down in Pennsylvania, could have been intercepted if wiretaps had been used on cell phone conversations between Osama bin Laden and his operatives, as he instructed them to learn to fly planes at our aviation training schools here in America, so they could carry out his vengeance on innocent Americans.
I have no smarky comment about that; I just like it.
When the terrorists only showed prior interest (while training) in learning to get airplanes in the air, and zero interest in landing them, somebody’s curiosity should have sparked enough suspicion that something was amiss, to start an immediate investigation into the odd behavior.
Funny. It DID spark someone’s interest. Of course, it never made it up the chains of the intelligence community in order to do anything about it. All happened during Bush’s watch, too. But fine. We’ll blame Clinton anyway.
It is obvious some people are going to find fault with the Bush Administration, even as they are being blown to smithereens, by the same terrorists they defended.
Instead, those people should be thanking the Bush Administration while they are being blown to smithereens by terrorists.
And now to my favorite part:
Wednesday night when the alarm sounded indicating the possibility a dangerous nerve agent had been detected in the Russell Senate Building, around 200 had to be immediately evacuated. Thank goodness the substance turned out to be harmless. But the point I’m getting at: no matter how one might defend the terrorists for possible political gain — the terrorists’ main goal is to kill as many Americans as they can.
Shorter Kaye: "A false alarm about a nerve agent in the Senate Building — which actually turned out to be nothing more than cleaning solvent — proves my point that terrorists are out to kill us."
Waas’s New Scoop
Beyond what was stated in the court paper, say people with firsthand knowledge of the matter, Libby also indicated what he will offer as a broad defense during his upcoming criminal trial: that Vice President Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials had earlier encouraged and authorized him to share classified information with journalists to build public support for going to war. Later, after the war began in 2003, Cheney authorized Libby to release additional classified information, including details of the NIE, to defend the administration’s use of prewar intelligence in making the case for war.
So let me get this straight.
If you leak about the super-secret classified NSA wiretapping program to the New York Times, you’re a traitor.
But if you leak classified information on order to defend the Bush Administration, you’re a patriot.
Many GITMO Detainees Are NOT “Enemy Combatants”
Another right wing meme shot to hell.
About 500 detainees at Gitmo are not "enemy combatants". They were not captured on the battlefield. In fact, any of them are not affiliated with al Qaeda or the Taliban. They just happened to have been at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Rude Pundit has a few words.
Brownie To Talk?
Ex-FEMA Director Michael Brown is now saying that he wants to turn over his correspondence with Bush to congressional investigators unless Bush specifically tells him not to and agrees to cover his legal fees. Up until now, he’s been respecting the Bush Administration invocation of "executive privilege".
"Unless there is specific direction otherwise from the president," writes Brown’s lawyer, "including an assurance the president will provide a legal defense to Mr. Brown if he refuses to testify as to these matters, Mr. Brown will testify if asked about particular communications."
It will be interesting to see the White House respond.