Month: October 2009

‘Eff off

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by von I stumbled across this post while perusing Jezebel.*  Apparently, it's the second in a series from Alison Samuels explaining why Angelina Jolie is guilty of something — racism? stupidity? poor fashion sense? – based on the look her daughter's hair.  I missed the first post, but here's the gist:  Jolie's daughter is from Ethiopia.  Jolie lets her daughter's hair grow … Read more

Semi-Permanent Vacation

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by publius I've been going back and forth on this for some time.  But I've decided it's time to take a break from blogging for a while, maybe longer.   I'm not quitting for good — I consider it more like taking "senior status."  I'll continue to post now and then (Sebastian-style), but not that frequently.  … Read more

In The Hot Seat

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by publius The League of Ordinary Gentleman is a good blog — one you should be reading.  However, one of the writers there, Mark Thompson, has recently shown some questionable judgment by deciding to interview me about admin law and FCC stuff.  But you should overlook that. Seriously, the interview is here if you're interested.  … Read more

Irreconcilable Differences?

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by Eric Martin One justification for continuing (and possibly escalating) our military/non-military commitment in Afghanistan centers around the potential for al-Qaeda to establish safe havens in that country from which to coordinate attacks on US targets.  This al-Qaeda-based rationale rests on several assumptions that include, but perhaps are not limited to: 1. If we withdraw or significantly reduce our military presence, the Taliban will retake Afghanistan (presumably that … Read more

Contracts and All That, Guns! Guns!

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by Eric Martin Quotable 'conservative dissident' Daniel Larison on the GOP's bizarre obsession with the decision by the Obama administration to scale back the prior administration's missile defense policies in Eastern Europe: Cheney’s recent speech at the Center for Security Policy is much what you would expect from him, but that is not what interests me here. … Read more

The Af-Pak Unpack

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by Eric Martin The New York Times, to its credit, attempts to dispel some of the stubborn misinformation concerning the interchangeability (or lack thereof) of the Afghan Taliban faction and Pakistani Taliban faction.  Contrary to popular and pervasive fictions, these two groups are quite distinct in terms of strategy and objectives. As it devises a New Afghanistan … Read more

David Martin, Disgrace to the Legal Profession

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by publius Via Ta-Nehisi, I saw this amazing Anderson Cooper interview of Todd Willingham's defense attorney, David Martin.  It's enough to make you literally nauseous.  Remember that Martin's zealous defense consisted of getting the babysitter to testify: The defense had tried to find a fire expert to counter Vasquez and Fogg’s testimony, but the one … Read more

OSHA: Nevada is a Good Place to be a Bad Boss

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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) last week issued a scathing indictment of Nevada’s OSHA program. Nevada has a well-deserved reputation for being a dangerous place to work. Last year, a spate of construction deaths on the Las Vegas Strip prompted a congressional hearing. The Las Vegas Sun won this year’s public service Pulitzer for exposing the carnage. Nevada inspectors told federal investigators that their superiors pressured them not to write up employers for willful violations of safety laws.

Fred Hiatt’s Strange Argument

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by publius You'll be shocked to learn that Fred Hiatt opposes the public option.  You'll be further shocked that his argument doesn't make much sense. Hiatt's main concern is cost control.  He thinks (maybe correctly) that Congress is punting on controlling costs.  Instead, Hiatt wants Congress (1) to impose taxes on employer-provided health care benefits; … Read more

The Public Option’s Most Frustrating Opponent

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by publius Despite its new momentum, the public option has a powerful new opponent — the White House.  It's incredibly frustrating.  Although Reid is close to getting 60 votes on cloture, Obama and Rahm (who, for all his bluster, is politically timid) are pushing for the "trigger," which is the same as nothing. The question, … Read more

Just Tax

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by publius I have to admit that I don't like the idea of the government stepping in to dictate compensation levels, TARP funds or no TARP funds.  I'm certainly not morally opposed to it — heck, many of these people deserve far worse. The problem, though, is that I don't think the government is institutionally … Read more

RedState Wonkery on Open Networks

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by publius I wasn't expecting the good folks at RedState to endorse open networks.  But RedState's Neil Stevens threw me for a loop with this one:  [Open network regulations are bad because] [w]ealth will be redistributed, as cash-rich, massive market valued Internet firms will bully and get a free ride on capital-intensive, smaller market valued … Read more

The Big Bang Theory

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Guest post by Gary Farber.  Gary’s home blog is Amygdala, and he invites you to read him there. 

For my final guest post at Obsidian Wings, something completely different: a roundup of some recent science, or tech, or just downright weird, sci-tech news, or that’s at least news to me, as well as an item or two of the fantastic.

Green your factories with electron beam particle accelerators:

[…] While environmental applications of particle accelerators have made little progress commercially in the United States in the last 40 years, a number of countries in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East are actively pursuing the technology.

In Daegu, Korea, an electron-beam accelerator in a textile factory removes toxic dyes from 10,000 cubic meters of wastewater per day. In Szczecin, Poland, the Pomorzany power station installed an electron-beam accelerator in its coal plant to simultaneously remove sulfur dioxides and nitrogen oxides from roughly 270,000 cubic meters of flue gas per hour. China has started to use electron beams to control air pollution, and a facility in Bulgaria is under construction. Saudi Arabia may soon follow.

All you have to do for more widespread use is ensmall them. 

[…] “We have proven that the technology works,” says Andrzej Chmielewski, director of the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology in Warsaw, Poland. “The size of the accelerators can be huge, though. We need a technological breakthrough” to make accelerators smaller and easier to maintain.

But they’re working on that!  With plasma wakefield acceleration and laser wakefield acceleration! 

Oh, and who do you have to thank for that?

[…] Thanks in great part to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly known as the stimulus package,

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Dancing In The Dark

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Guest post by Gary Farber.  Gary's home blog is Amygdala, and he invites you to read him there.

[Eric Martin: My friend Gary is going to be pitching in for a couple of days as I adjust to the enhanced parenting techniques that my son is submitting me too.  And yes, sleep deprivation is torture.]

On December 31, 2009, three provisions of "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT ACT) Act of 2001," aka the "PATRIOT Act,"  sunset and expire.

Bills to reauthorize or amend these three provisions have been moving through the Congressional Judiciary Committees in the past two months.

The three sections are:  

SEC. 206. ROVING SURVEILLANCE AUTHORITY UNDER THE FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE ACT OF 1978. Section 105(c)(2)(B) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1805(c)(2)(B)) is amended by inserting 'or in circumstances where the Court finds that the actions of the target of the application may have the effect of thwarting the identification of a specified person, such other persons,' after 'specified person'.

This is also known as "the John Doe" provision.

SEC. 215. ACCESS TO RECORDS AND OTHER ITEMS UNDER THE FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE ACT.

Also known as the section dealing with "national security letters," by which:

The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation or a designee of the Director (whose rank shall be no lower than Assistant Special Agent in Charge) may make an application for an order requiring the production of any tangible things (including books, records, papers, documents, and other items) for an investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities [….]

The third is:

SEC. 805. MATERIAL SUPPORT FOR TERRORISM.

What are these about, and why should we care?, you ask. As the ACLU explains:

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Pelosi Goes “All In” On Public Option

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By Lindsay Beyerstein Nancy Pelosi is going all in to support a public option that would hold down costs by setting reimbursement rates at Medicare plus 5%. The CBO's latest cost estimates for various House health care reform options have galvanized Pelosi in favor of a Med+5 public option, Brian Beutler reports.  Pelosi has always … Read more

Get Your “Part E” On

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by publius House Democrats are warming to renaming the public option "Medicare Part E."  The Hill reports: Say hello to “Medicare Part E” — as in, “Medicare for Everyone.” House Democrats are looking at re-branding the public health insurance option as Medicare, an established government healthcare program that is better known than the public option. … Read more

Congressional Democrats Attempt to Sell the Internet

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by publius As I've noted before, it's nothing short of a miracle that the FCC has come out so strongly for open networks.  On its face, it seems to defy the ways of Washington — and public choice theory in particular.  The FCC's action wasn't the result of lobbying by monied interest groups.  It was … Read more

Public Option Politics

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by publius The latest Post/ABC poll shows that Americans continue to favor a public option.  Indeed, the public option is getting more popular — the poll shows that support has rebounded since the summer, thanks in no small part to committed liberal activists. The fact that the public option is genuinely popular should make it … Read more

Hey, Joe, Where You Going With That Gun In Your Hand? Pt. II

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Guest post by Gary Farber.  Gary's home blog is Amygdala, and he invites you to read him there.

[Eric Martin: My friend Gary is going to be pitching in for a couple of days as I adjust to the enhanced parenting techniques that my son is submitting me too.  And yes, sleep deprivation is torture.]

Part I of this two-part post is here.

Pt. II:

First we have to distinguish between the Taliban and al Qaeda. Then we have to analyze what threat either actually presents. And then we have to do a cost-benefit analysis of what's the best course of action. The essential war with al Qaeda, both insofar as al Qaeda remains any kind of organization, and, more importantly, insofar as it remains an inspiration to jihadists, is an ideological war, not a military war. The Taliban now have tried a YouTube channel for propaganda. The best way to fight al Qaeda is to fight their ideology, and we're doing okay at that. From 2008:

[…] These new critics, in concert with mainstream Muslim leaders, have created a powerful coalition countering Al Qaeda's ideology. According to Pew polls, support for Al Qaeda has been dropping around the Muslim world in recent years. The numbers supporting suicide bombings in Indonesia, Lebanon, and Bangladesh, for instance, have dropped by half or more in the last five years. In Saudi Arabia, only 10 percent now have a favorable view of Al Qaeda, according to a December poll by Terror Free Tomorrow, a Washington-based think tank. Following a wave of suicide attacks in Pakistan in the past year, support for suicide operations amongst Pakistanis has dropped to 9 percent (it was 33 percent five years ago), while favorable views of bin Laden in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, around where he is believed to be hiding, have plummeted to 4 percent from 70 percent since August 2007.

We can continue presenting an alternative. Many play up contemporary al Qaeda-Taliban ties, but that's highly questionable, as Gareth Porter writes:

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Hey, Joe, where you going with that gun in your hand? Pt. I.

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Guest post by Gary Farber (thanks to Eric Martin, who understandably is busy!  And double congrats to Eric for all that family-makin' stuff he's been doin'!)

Gary's home blog is Amygdala, and he invites you to read him there.

[Eric Martin: My friend Gary is going to be pitching in for a couple of days as I adjust to the enhanced parenting techniques that my son is submitting me too.  And yes, sleep deprivation is torture.]

A post in two parts.  Part I:

On Friday night's PBS Newshour, Tom Bearden gave the following report from Fort Carson: 

 (Audio-only, if you have bandwidth issues.  Click the above link for a transcript.)

I was struck cold.

I've been to that chapel.

I've seen the upended rifle with the soldier's own helmet atop it, and boots beside it.

I've been there for the chilling sound and sight of the honor guards' rifle-shot salute.

I've listened to the bagpipes, and seen the faces of the family and friends, just as we see and hear in this video.

Then it was one soldier's boots and rifle. 

On Friday, it was six at once.

This is the cost of our Long War in Afghanistan.

This is the price our families, and sons and daughters, and parents, are paying.

It's been eight years and a week since American forces began combat in Afghanistan.

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Reform’s “Clarifying Moment”

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by publius We are (knock on wood) tantalizingly close to historic health coverage reform.  In the heat of today's debates, it's easy to forget just how big this is.  If we enact reform, it will instantly be one of the most important legislative actions in American history — remembered alongside the New Deal and the … Read more

Open thread

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by von It seems like it's been a while since we had one.  To get us in the mood: I was bellied up to the bar at a favorite watering hole* when I caught this clip on the TV.  My exact words were (to no one in particular):  "Holy f-cking sh-t, that kid is nine years old." I'm still … Read more

Obama at his best

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by von I have to agree with Andrew Sullivan.  This is Obama at his best: What I reject is when some folks say we should go back to the past policies when it was those very same policies that got us into this mess in the first place.  (Applause.) Another way of putting it is … Read more

I don’t have a proposal to solve everything, just this one thing

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by von Listen.  Just stop talking.  Stop promising.  Stop worrying.  Stop studying.  Stop triangulating.  Stop making speeches.  Just do this one thing, Mr. President:  Repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." No one thinks that DADT is working.  No one is defending it.  No one likes it.  I don't like it. Your supporters don't like it.  Lots of Republicans don't … Read more

Contrarian Double-Ex Hires Sociopath as Friendship Guru

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By Lindsay Beyerstein The self-proclaimed feminist website Double-X shrewdly hired noted sociopath Lucinda Rosenfeld to write its friendship advice column. This is precisely the kind of fresh, contrarian perspective we’ve come to expect from the Slate/Double-X brand. Double-X racks up a lot of hits by hiring anti-feminists to diagnose the ills of contemporary feminism. Retaining … Read more

Happy 30 Rock Day

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by publius Looks promising: The parent company is in ruthless cost-cutting mode on “30 Rock” this season, thanks to what the Republican-supporting, Wall Street-loving boss, Jack Donaghy ( Alec Baldwin ), smoothly refers to as “Comrade Obama’s recession.” NBC pages no longer receive overtime, and pink slips rain down in almost every department. Jack’s huge … Read more

Perry and the Politics of Capital Punishment

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by publius Rick Perry has apparently decided to double down on Willingham.  After multiple articles came out documenting inappropriate political pressure on the investigation, Perry came out firing yesterday.  Here's the Houston Chronicle: Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday defended his actions in the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, calling him a “monster” and a “bad … Read more

The Dude

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by Eric Martin

After what were 30+ hours of grueling labor (for me mostly, though my wife seemed to be in some type of pain as well – I’ll have to check back with her on that), Eric Jae-Young Lee Martin finally decided to join us on Saturday, October 10th at 11:36 a.m. 

In addition to taking his time once the whole show got under way, my son also decided that the fact that dad had tickets to Friday night’s Yankee playoff game was entirely beside the point.  Luckily, my good friend Steve (who benefitted from my son’s irregular sense of timing) was kind enough to phone me after what was one of the more dramatic playoff wins for the Yanks in a while to let me know that Mark Teixeira’s game-winning, 11th inning, walk-off home runs landed 5 rows in front of my his seats.

Still, I think it’s clear I came out the winner.  I believe he calls this look “Velvet Steel” but it’s hard to make out his words as he tends to mumble. 

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And this is the point …..

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…. Of calling the Democrats' stimulus package A Stimulus for Tomorrow (Part 11) by von Andrew Sullivan mentions a piece by Daniel Gross, which purportedly reminds "conservatives"* that it's too early to label the stimulus a failure because most of the money hasn't been spent yet. Here is my hand.  Here is my forehead.  Here is my … Read more

A Favorable Wind

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by publius One sign that coverage reform has momentum is that several of the recent attacks from insurers are designed to make the bill more like Democrats want.  Understandably, insurers want more healthy people buying coverage — and so they want a stricter mandate.  The only way, however, to justify a stricter mandate is to … Read more

Snowe and the Logic of Defection

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by publius Happy V-F Day — reform has finally escaped from Finance, with a Republican vote to boot.  And I am quite grateful to Sen. Snowe for doing the right thing in the face of almost certain reprisals.  It's not an easy thing to do, but she did it. Ironically enough, though, Snowe's vote is … Read more