Scarabus

Darth Cheney said on Face the Nation that almost everything the Bush administration has done has been both proper and beneficial. One would never expect Bob Schieffer to press Cheney (the following image says it all), but he did at least ask him about the legality of the administration’s actions. Cheney just danced around that, of course.

Here’s a transcript of a representative exchange:

While Cheney could not say whether any action by a president in wartime should be considered “legal,” he pointed to historic precedents for presidents taking extra-legal measures in order, he said, to protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

“If you hark back in our history, you can look at Abraham Lincoln, who suspended the writ of habeas corpus in the middle of the Civil War.”

“But nobody thinks that that was legal,” Schieffer said.

“Well, no - well, it certainly was, in the sense he wasn’t impeached,” Cheney said. “And it was a wartime measure that he took that I think today, history says, yes, that was probably a good thing to do.”

Wouldn’t it have been nice if instead of going for the “nobody thinks” dodge Schieffer had said, “Well, neither you nor I is a legal scholar, but independent Constitutional experts like, say, Jonathan Turley say your actions were illegal and should be prosecuted. Fat chance.

Bernie Madoff is the creep who bilked investors out of $50 billion by means of a Ponzi scheme. (It’s like a pyramid scheme except that instead of getting people to sell things for you, you get them to invest money with you.) A statue was stolen from his multimillion dollar Florida estate, then returned with a message attached: “Bernie the Swindler, Lesson: Return stolen property to rightful owners.” It was signed by “The Educators.”

Madoff Statue Theft: A Followup

By Susie Madrak Sunday Jan 04, 2009 6:30am

Here’s an interesting piece [regarding] the Madoff statue story I missed the first time around:

   The copper statue was reported stolen from Madoff’s $9.2 million mansion on Dec. 22 - about a week after the Wall Street money man was accused of scamming investors in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

   The statue does not appear to have any damage, and police are continuing to investigate the incident.

   Frick said he was not aware of the 2004 German movie The Edukators, in which anti-capitalist activists break into the homes of rich people, move furniture around and leave notes that say “the days of plenty are over.”

   The activists kidnap a rich businessman, have ideological discussions about money and politics, and then let him go, possibly teaching him a lesson on ethics and morality.

   “Interesting,” Frick said when told of the film.

I see the potential for a lot of very interesting political theater in this new era

For those who aren’t au courant, a Muslim American family and a friend were removed from an AirTran flight because another passenger had heard (and reported) a member of the party comment on the safest place to sit in an airplane. Yeah. The sort of comment any passenger might make—any passenger except a terrorist trying to remain inconspicuous!

The other passenger who overheard the offhand remark reported it to a flight attendant. Word went up the line, and the pilot ordered that the entire party be removed from the flight. (Hard to conceive that the pilot hadn’t consulted up the line.) The family and friend were interviewed, checked out, and cleared completely. Presumably they were searched carefully. Nevertheless, AirTran still refused to rebook them.

TSA says both decisions were the responsibility of AirTran. Yes, the policy was set by the federal government. But this particular application of the policy was determined entirely by AirTran. Consequently, credit for a wise decision should go to AirTran. But blame for a stupid, cruel, and destructive decision should also go to AirTran.

Personally, I think AirTran’s behavior has been dishonorable, immoral, and destructive. I’m unlikely to fly again, but if I do it certainly won’t be on AirTran. I’ll also urge everyone I know to avoid AirTran. I communicated my feelings to the airline:

AirTran–

TSA says the decision to remove the Irfans and friend from their flight was entirely yours. Obviously, then, it was also your decision to refuse to rebook the family even after they had been cleared!

These decisions, especially the latter, damage our nation’s moral … stature across the globe. They were decisions by a single corporation, of course, but they will be perceived as “American” decisions.

[In other words,] you have damaged our nation. You have provided additional encouragement to those who are either recruiting or thinking of becoming terrorists. The honorable course now would be to acknowledge your mistake and apologize to the family, while still supporting the passenger who raised a warning.

Obviously I will never again fly on AirTran, and I will do my best to make sure my friends and relatives also refuse. I hope that example will catch on.

Princess Sparkle Pony has created a suggestion for a Florida license plate:

Hint: If you don’t get the “Heritage” allusion, check out The Heritage Foundation .

A thread stimulated by the fact that global warming expert James Hansen’s has made a direct appeal to Obama has been running on the Current TV blog. Someone there raised the question whether we should be spending money on space exploration. My answer is “Yes!” Here’s what I had to say.

Not quite as simple as spending money “here” [versus] “there.” Four quick instances. First, technology developed to get there is then also used here. This site is ugly in terms of design, but it lists lots of good examples:

http://www.thespaceplace.com/nasa/spinoffs.html

Second, technology used in space is also turned around to study earth and help us better understand what’s happening here:

http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/Library/nationalassessment/newsletter/1999.06/nasa.html

Third, other bodies in our solar system are rich in mineral resources that will be increasingly needed on earth.

Fourth, the universe is a single system. What happens there affects us [here] continually, and potentially catastrophically. For instance, our weather, electrical grid, electronic, and communications systems are at the mercy of solar flares. An asteroid impact like the one that exploded in Tunguska, Siberia, in 1908 could easily trigger a global nuclear war. An asteroid like the one that destroyed the dinosaurs could destroy humanity just as easily.

Watch the words scrolling past at the bottom of the screen.

Of the past year.

Through ironic juxtaposition of Christmas songs and images.

Very funny in an “ouch!” and “hmmmm….” sort of way.

I’ve been away from the computer, celebrating Christmas with our family in Avondale Estates, GA. I’ll celebrate my return with a contest inspired by a Tom the Dancing Bug cartoon.

Here’s the premise. The cartoon begins by observing that the greatest threat to the survival of animals like the tiger and rhinoceros is the popularity of their body parts in Chinese (and other) folk medicine. Poachers are getting rich off the bounties paid for parts of the animals. Tom’s suggestion is that we start spreading viral rumors that the parts of stuff our world just doesn’t need have miraculous medicinal and erotic properties. Tom offers some good suggestions. Let’s see if we can come up with others that will be just as good or better.

• Tongue of right wing radio shock jock cures constipation.
• Brain of political pundit makes pigs grow both dumber and fatter.
• Scalp of minister preaching hatred of other religions makes one impervious to truth and reason.