Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Supreme Court Remands Gitmo Torture Damages Case

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The Supreme Court granted certiorari in the case of Rasul v. Rumsfeld, Myers, et al., in which 3 British citizens held at Guantanamo sued for torture and violations of their religious rights.

They vacated the dismissals of the Circuit and Appeals court, and sent the case back to the circuit for review with instructions to review it under the precedent of Boumediene v. Bush.

An interesting bit here:

In January, the federal appeals court decided that even if all their claims are true, the US officials are immune from suit because, even though torture, physical abuse and humiliation of prisoners violate domestic and international law, the officials were doing all this “within the scope of their employment” and so aren’t personally responsible. They were also immune, the court added, because it wasn’t clear when they authorized the torture that detainees at Guantanamo Bay had rights. As for the men’s religious rights, the court decided that as foreigners, they were not “persons” entitled to the protection of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Note that the inimitable Janice Rogers Brown, who claimed that God’s law trumped the constitution when she was a judge, by which she meant that every zygote was a person no matter what the Supreme Court said, is now saying that the detainees were not “persons” entitled to the protection of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which means I guess, that Moslem fetuses are not people to her.

It should be interesting how it goes.

Update on Bigot Little Rickie Warren

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In addition to being a virulently anti-gay, anti-abortion bigot, I forgot to mention that Obama’s choice to give the invocation at the inauguration also supports the assassination of foreign leaders:

HANNITY: Can you talk to rogue dictators? Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust, wants to wipe Israel off the map, is seeking nuclear weapons.

WARREN: Yes.

HANNITY: I think we need to take him out.

WARREN: Yes.

HANNITY: Am I advocating something dark, evil or something righteous?

WARREN: Well, actually, the Bible says that evil cannot be negotiated with. It has to just be stopped. And I believe…

HANNITY: By force?

WARREN: Well, if necessary. In fact, that is the legitimate role of government. The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers. Not good-doers. Evildoers.

and views gay marriage marriages as being equivalent to incest, child rape and polygamy:

Rick Warren: But the issue to me is, I’m not opposed to that as much as I’m opposed to the redefinition of a 5,000-year definition of marriage. I’m opposed to having a brother and sister be together and call that marriage. I’m opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage. I’m opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage.

Steven Waldman: Do you think, though, that they are equivalent to having gays getting married?

Rick Warren: Oh I do.

BTW, while I’m sure I don’t have enough readers to get a comment to the effect that this was not Obama’s decision, but that of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, headed by Diane Feinstein.*

Well, the word is out that this was Obama’s pick:

A powerful Democratic friend contacted me this morning to let me know that they talked to the key players yesterday, and Diane Feinstein, chair of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, had nothing to do with the pick of Rick Warren as Obama’s invocation speaker at the inaugural. The decision was made by Obama himself, I’m told, and Feinstein just assumed that he had vetted it with his staff. Difi went along with Obama’s decision, not the other way around. If this is true, then our apologies to Senator Feinstein for suggesting that she was involved.

This has the ring of truth.

Feinstein made her statewide political career on reaching out to the gay community as mayor of San Francisco following the assassination of Moskone and Milk.

It’s one of the few things that she has never wavered on.

*Full disclosure, my great grandfather, Harry Goldman, and her grandfather, Sam Goldman were brothers.

Juan Williams: Calling Swarthy People Uppity Since…..

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OK, he didn’t use the word “uppity”, but considering his behavior, where he seems to make a living out of condemning things like Rap music (and getting the lyrics wrong in the process), his screeds against the Iraqi people on Billo’s show should come as no surprise.

But’s let’s read what he said (vid below):

WILLIAMS: But on a serious level, how many American lives have been sacrificed to the cause of liberating Iraq? How much money has been spent while they’re not spending their own profits from their oil? American money. So I just think it’s absolutely the act of an ingrate for them to behave in this way. Just unbelievable to me.

Them, huh….They should shut up and sing spirituals eat their falafel.

Yes, they are ingrates because they object to being invaded and conquered, which has created this reality:

  • More than four million Iraqis forced to flee either to another part of Iraq or abroad.
  • Four million Iraqis regularly cannot buy enough food.
  • 70 percent are without adequate water supplies, compared to 50 percent in 2003.
  • 28 percent of children are malnourished, compared to 19 percent before the 2003 invasion.
  • 92 percent of Iraqi children suffer learning problems, mostly due to the climate of fear.

And those numbers ignore the somewhere north of ½ million dead that are a result of the mess we made.

They should be grateful, because even though we took them prisoner and sold them as slaves across the oceans, their life is much better on the plantation …. they get purple fingers.

Could someone explain to me why Juan Williams isn’t excluded from polite society like David Duke?

Economics Update

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Starting with real estate, the Architecture Billings Index fell to an all time low in November, surpassing the all time low in October. (H/t Calculated Risk)

Also, if you read about houses moving in Southern California, please remember that 55% of those sales are foreclosures. (Again, H/t Calculated Risk)

We are also seeing treasury yields down in expectation of an abysmal Fed Bank of Philadelphia’s general economic index at 10:00am on Thursday.

In currency, what can you say? The fed cuts rates to basically 0%, and it’s down against other major currencies.

In energy, OPEC pledged cuts of 2.2 million bbl/day from production, but the price fell anyway, to below $40/bbl(!), because investors do not think that it is enough, and because they think that member nations will cheat.

On the other hand, it does appear that retail gasoline has finally bottomed out, as it’s up by $0.006/gal today.

Auto Industry Update

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Just so you know, I am aware how scummy the auto manufacturers are, case in point:

GM is expanding its Mexican plants as it is asking for a bailout from the US government.

It appears that the Republican Party Apparachicks who operate Cerberus have decided to shut down all Chrysler plants at least until January 19. Additionally, they are instituting draconian new fees to dealers on unsold inventory:

Starting Jan. 1, Chrysler’s financing arm will impose large fees on dealers holding new cars and trucks that are unsold after more than 360 days, and will require the payment of all remaining balances on any used vehicles unsold after more than six months.

Some dealerships could incur charges totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of 2009 at a time when many are already losing money and battling to stay in business, according to dealers familiar with the plans.

The reason that they give is that:

Chrysler’s financing arm recently has warned dealers it may have to temporarily stop providing loans for dealers to stock vehicles on their lots because of a wave of withdrawals from a fund used to pay off those loans.

In a letter dated Dec. 12, Chrysler Financial Chief Executive Tom Gilman said dealers have been withdrawing up to $60 million a day from the fund. A copy of the letter was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Dealers put their own money into the fund and use it to pay off loans that they take out to stock their lots with new vehicles. But since July, dealers have pulled $1.5 billion from the account on worries that Chrysler could go bankrupt.

They are not worried that Chrysler could go bankrupt, they are worried that flip and flee artist Cerberus, LLC will steal their money and that they will be left holding the bag, because that is how flip and flee artists work.

Additionally, GM has the Chevy Volt engine plant in Flint, MI on hold to conserve cash.

On the brighter side, it appears that GMAC is getting closer to being able to qualify as a bank holding company, which will allow them to get the bailouts from the Fed.

Obama Staffing Update

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Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsak for Secretary of Agriculture.

Republican Congressman Ray Lahood for Secretary of Transportation.

Mary Schapiro, current CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority as SEC Chairman. Finra which operates under SEC supervision, is a self regulatory organization, and was created last year in a merger of the NYSE and NASD self regulatory agencies.

I don’t know if this is good, because it means that she knows the system, or bad, because she’s too much of an insider.

Muntazer al-Zaidi Is Going to Be Murdered

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Seriously, he is. We just had his court hearing before a judge in his cell, “because he is too injured to appear in a courtroom, his brother says.”

He’s being tortured, and not a word from Bush of Perino on this, which would stop the abuse, because Perino is a wind up doll, and Bush likes it when people he sees as slighting him are hurt….Hell, he probably just likes it when people are hurt.

We also have a report that Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, Speaker of Iraq Parliament resigned over this, though it is unclear as to whether it was a real resignation, and if real, it is unclear if he was doing so over al-Zaidi, or because the body was in complete pandemonium:

Several Sadrist lawmakers interrupted, demanding that the session address al-Zeidi’s case and allegations that he had been beaten in custody. A noisy argument broke out after other lawmakers shouted that the case was a matter for the courts, according to Wisam al-Zubaidi, an adviser to Khalid al-Attiyah, parliament’s deputy speaker.

With legislators screaming at one another, speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni, shouted: “There is no honor in leading this parliament and I announce my resignation.”

Al-Mashhadani, who has not taken a public position on al-Zeidi, has a history of eccentric behavior and it was unclear whether the resignation was serious. Two years ago, the Shiite bloc ousted al-Mashhadani after a series of outbursts, but his fellow Sunnis forced his reinstatement.

An official in the speaker’s office confirmed al-Mashhadani’s announcement but said he was uncertain whether he meant what he said. The official said the speaker may have been made the remark because he was upset. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Obama Throws Gays Under the Bus…..Again

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Over a year ago, I called out Barack Obama for throwing gays under the bus with his gospel concert in South Carolina, when he let an anti-gay bigot (who’s also … you know gay … but all better now really … no … really … he’s all better now…) take the stage … scratch that take over the stage…

Well, I’m not stunned and amazed: He handled the McClurkin contraversy in the way most calculated to be hurtful, and now he
is having bigot Christo-Fascist* Rick Warren to give inaugural invocation.

The PFAW president describes himself as ‘Profoundly Disappointed’ by this development, and Atrios gives Obama the coveted Wanker of the Day award.

The good folks at Right Wing Watch have the scoop on just what this man has done and said, which includes:

  • Coming out vociferiously in support of Prop 8 stripping the right to marry from gays in California.
    • This also includes him lying like a dog, and saying that this would allow pastors to be arrested for sermons
  • Declaring that marriage, abortion rights (anti), and stem cell research were “non-negotiable” issues for Christian voters.
  • Has said that the difference himself and James Dobson is a just tone.
  • He has compared abortion to the Holocaust.
  • Declared that those who do not believe in God should not be allowed to hold public office.

I’m a bit disappointed, but I am far from surprised, I expected some sort of backhand to “te gay” as a demonstration of “bipartisanship.”

My gay friend who thinks that Obama sh%$s ice cream though….I don’t know how he’ll rationalize this.

If you are expecting a move on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in the military before the 2010 elections, you are sorely mistaken.

*I could also use the term “Talibaptist”….Your thoughts on which works better?

Election Update

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In Virginia, bigot US Representative Virgil Goode has conceded after a recount failed to turn around his 745 vote deficit.

In Minnesota, we have the Franken campaign suing Olmsted County some absentee ballots that were accepted, but then accidentally placed in the wrong pile, and so were not counted.

I would have thought that this one would not require the filing of a lawsuit, but I’m naive, I guess.

In any case, it was Norm’s big day in court, and while there were no rulings, it does appear that the Minnesota Supreme Court was unamused with the Coleman campaign.

Part of it hay have had to do with Coleman’s lawyer using the “F-Word” in court….No, not that f-word….I mean that he used the word Florida.

Roger Magnuson wasted no time in bringing up Florida. In fact, the attorney’s first utterance before the Minnesota Supreme Court this afternoon referenced the legal debacle of 2000. Representing Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign, Magnuson argued that the state canvassing board’s actions of December 12, when it recommended that all 87 counties count wrongly rejected absentee ballots, were an “an invitation to go to Florida.”

But before Magnuson could begin to back up this assertion, he was interrupted by a clearly irritated Justice Paul Anderson. “This is not Florida,” he stated. “I’m just not terribly receptive to you telling us this is Florida.”

So it went throughout the one-hour hearing before the Supreme Court today, with the justices repeatedly interrupting and questioning attorneys for both campaigns. The justices seemed more interested in Andersen v. Rolvaag, the 1962 Minnesota Supreme Court case that helped decide the state’s deadlocked gubernatorial race, than Bush v. Gore.

(emphasis mine)

Another Indication of Just How Long the Damage Will Last

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Because this was unthinkable just 5 or 6 years ago:

Latin American and Caribbean leaders gathering in Brazil tomorrow will mark a historic occasion: a region-wide summit that excludes the United States.

Almost two centuries after President James Monroe declared Latin America a U.S. sphere of influence, the region is breaking away. From socialist-leaning Venezuela to market-friendly Brazil, governments are expanding military, economic and diplomatic ties with potential U.S. adversaries such as China, Russia and Iran.

and in addition to China and Russia, guess who’s coming to dinner?

The two-day gathering, called by Brazil at a beach resort in Bahia state, is also a diplomatic triumph for Cuban President Raul Castro, making his first trip abroad since taking over from his brother Fidel two years ago. The communist island was suspended from the hemisphere-wide Organization of American States in 1962 over its ties with the former Soviet Union.

We will be suffering major ill effect is Bush and His Evil Minions™ well after I am dead.

More People Who Write (and Think) Better Than I am Able Too

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In this case, it’s Jonathan Schwarz of A Tiny Revolution:

There’s a rule of thumb for American politics that will never steer you wrong: if the Washington press corps worships a political figure and squeaks for decades on end about how he’s a Brave Man of Honor and Wisdom, that political figure is one of the most dangerous lying scumbags on earth.

I would only add that sometimes *cough* John McCain *cough* he’s also batsh%$ insane.

What Big Media Matt Says

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On Iraq:

The harsh reality is that this was not a noble undertaking done for good reasons. It was a criminal enterprise launched by madmen cheered on by a chorus of fools and cowards. And it’s seen as such by virtually everyone all around the world — including but by no means limited to the Arab world. But it’s impolitic to point this out in the United States, and it’s clear that even a president-elect who had the wisdom not to be suckered in by the War Fever of 2002 has no intention of really acting to marginalize the bad actors. Which, I think, makes sense for his political objectives. But if Americans want to play a constructive role in world affairs, it’s vitally important for us to get in touch with the reality of what the past eight years of US foreign policy have been and how they’re seen and understood by people who aren’t stirred by the shibboleths of American patriotism.

(emphasis mine)

I don’t want them marginalized. I want them imprisoned.

Free Muntader al-Zaidi, Again

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Well it appears that the Iraqi shoe throwing journalist has been tortured in prison, with an arm and ribs broken, and the Lebanese television channel NTV has offered him a job retroactively, “from the moment the first shoe was thrown”.

Not surprisingly, he has become a folk hero across the Arab world (see here andhere)

What is a surprise is George W. Bush is so completely clueless:

‘I’m not insulted. I don’t hold it against the government,’ Bush told ABC News in an exclusive interview. ‘The guy wanted to get on TV and he did. I don’t know what his beef is, but whatever it is, I’m sure someone will hear it.’

(emphasis mine)

Doesn’t know what his beef is? After invading and occupying his country, and killing at least 100,000 of his countrymen, forcing about 2 million into exile, and internally displacing another 2 million, in a country of 30 million, you don’t know what his beef is? (link)

Well, it looks like he may be getting some American style torture soon, because it’s been reported that Muntader al-Zaidi has been transferred to the Camp Cropper prison, which is US run.

Just How Gay is Joseph Farah?

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It appears that some wag has regularly hacks Joseph Farah’s wiki page, and he is having a hissy fit about this.

The opening line reads:

Joseph Farah is an American author, journalist, and editor-in-chief of the website WorldNetDaily (WND). Farah is of Syrian and Lebanese ancestry.

And he replaces it with:

Joseph Francis Farah is an Evangelical Christian American journalist and noted homosexual of Lebanese and Syrian heritage.

(emphasis mine)

Let’s be clear, the guy doing defacing the Wiki entry is a jerk, because you don’t edit a wiki entry without some sort of citation, even if it’s just, “A friend of a friend of my cousin said that Joseph Farah sucked his dick,” anything else just vandalism.

That being said, when I look at that picture I do wonder about him, because that picture sets off my Gaydar, and I didn’t even know that I had Gaydar.

Then Don’t Send Loose Cannons on Diplomatic Missions

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The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, is objecting to Israel’s expulsion of Richard Falk, saying that, “”it is the responsibility of states to cooperate with the independent UN experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council.”

He’s correct, of course, just as, for example members of the UN have an obligation not to appoint people who are batsh%$ insane to be their Ambassadors, so there is an obligation to criticize Bush and His Evil Minions™ for appointing John “The Mustache of Doom” Bolton to the UN.

Unfortunately, Richard Falk has no more control of his tongue than did the ‘Stache.

The man is an agent of a diplomatic organization on a fact finding mission, but he has made public statements which show that he should not be trusted with anything managing a Popsicle stand (or an academic department):

  • Support for the 911 conspiracy theorists.
  • Saying that, “”the depiction of [Khomeini] as fanatical, reactionary and the bearer of crude prejudices seems certainly and happily false … To suppose that Ayatollah Khomeini is dissembling seems almost beyond belief. … Having created a new model of popular revolution based, for the most part, on nonviolent tactics, Iran may yet provide us with a desperately-needed model of humane governance for a third-world country.”
  • Describing Israeli actions in the disputed territories as a Holocaust.
  • Asking to investigate Palestinian abuses, but only to “insulate” the HRC from accusation of bias, which constitutes an explicit admission of bias on his own part.

(And that’s just from a quick glance at his wiki)

Speaking as someone who was, and is, profoundly embarrassed by the fact that John Bolton is still given time in news shows and not relegated to circus acts, and horrified that snake oil salesman Benyamin Netanyahu was, and might be again, PM of Israel, the answer to the question is not to appoint equal and opposite nutjobs.

There are dozens, perhaps hundreds of people who could bring a dedication to the job, what’s more, I’ve searched the net, and found no evidence that he either speaks Arabic or Hebrew, and at the very least, the investigator should be conversationally fluent in Arabic.

If an investigator cannot speak the language, it is very difficult for them to investigate. To rely on representatives of one government or the other to supply translators is to place a filter on on communications by the party supplying the translator.

Auto Update

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So, Bank of America suggests that GM might need $30 billion to survive, which is still about 1/10 of what AIG has gotten.

In any case, Bush and Paulson and their Evil Minions™ are considering a Car Czar who would have the power to force bankruptcy on the automakers, and an auto analyst is predicting that the Bush Administration will use this for crass political gain, and demand concessions, which Obama would likely overturn, because not all the stake holders are involved in those concessions.

Particularly in the case of GM, one issue is concessions from the local dealers, and that scares every member of Congress, because auto dealers have always been extremely aggressive political donors and political forces in the districts.

In any case, as more reports emerge that Bush and Paulson are close to a deal, I am again compelled to make the repeat the wisest thing that I’ve read this century:

But it does inspire in me the desire for a competition; can anyone, particularly the rather more Bush-friendly recent arrivals to the board, give me one single example of something with the following three characteristics:

  1. It is a policy initiative of the current Bush administration
  2. It was significant enough in scale that I’d have heard of it (at a pinch, that I should have heard of it)
  3. It wasn’t in some important way completely f#$@ed up during the execution.

Seriously. I’ve yet to see anything wiser yet, and I’m using the loose definition of the 21st century which includes the year 2000.

Minnesota Corruption Update

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The Star Tribune notes that Norm and Laurie Coleman, her boss, Jim Hays, and Coleman Supporter Nasser Kazemini have all high-powered retained lawyers on a matter currently being investigated by the FBI, in which allegations have been made that Kazemini funneled money to Norm Coleman via Laurie Coleman, using Jim Hays insurance company as a conduit.

The interesting paragraph in the article, and I did not catch it, the good folks at TPMMuckraker did is this:

Norm Coleman has hired Doug Kelley, Laurie Coleman is represented by Earl Gray, Hays is aligned with Doug Peterson and Kazeminy has secured the services of Joe Friedberg.

Norm and Laurie have separate lawyers. While this does not mean that they will roll on each other…yet…but it does mean that this is serious, and that they are taking this very seriously.

Heh.