Posts from — May 2009

The UK political scene is a bit unsettled at the moment with two members of the House of Lords suspended for acting like US Senators and consorting with lobbyists. What a shocking thought, changing legislation at the behest of someone with money … tsk, tsk.

Over at the other end of the building the Speaker of the House of Commons resigns for not being able to control the greed of the members of the chamber.

The BBC has a backgrounder: How will new Speaker be chosen?

Sticking with tradition, the new Speaker is dragged to the Chair, feigning reluctance.

Finally, the Speaker-elect must be approved by the Queen before they may take office.

Given recent history, I’m not sure the reluctance will be feigned.

According to the Local Puppy Trainer, the Federal prosecutors had a wonderful package behind Door #1 and my former sheriff went for it: Morris admits guilt in all six felony charges. Teresa Adams looks like she will be going for the same plea agreement on Friday.

Meanwhile we learn that the Sheriff’s Office finance director has been suspended

SHALIMAR – On the day Charlie Morris pleaded guilty to six felony charges, administrators at the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office suspended another person implicated in the kickback scheme.

Sandy Norris, Morris’ finance director, was suspended with pay Tuesday “subject to the completion of an internal investigation,” interim Sheriff Ed Spooner said.

Ah, Sandy, this is where you decide to spend more time with your family and resign to save whatever benefits you can. Actually you should have been looking for “other opportunities” as soon as Charlie and Teresa were arrested.

While I think that the CIA claims about their briefing of Congress was made up out of whole cloth, people need to stop making unverified claims based on information from their “friends” in the CIA.

Tonight Keith Olbermann claimed that the CIA didn’t coin the term “enhanced interrogation techniques” until 2006. That is a bit odd, as a Google search turned up on the first page:

Dana Priest, Sunday, June 27, 2004, Washington Post, Page AO1: CIA Puts Harsh Tactics On Hold

The “enhanced interrogation techniques,” as the CIA calls them, include feigned drowning and refusal of pain medication for injuries. The tactics have been used to elicit intelligence from al Qaeda leaders such as Abu Zubaida and Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

The “good guys” in the media need to learn how to fact check, like bloggers do. Screw ups like this just help the “bad guys”.

Update: Apparently, based on Digby repeating the claim, it came from TPM Muckraker, and they are the ones who don’t fact check, which is not exactly a surprise to me after their performance in the Democratic primary.

While we have had too much rain, Central Florida has been in a drought and plagued with numerous wildfires, a couple of dozen 100 acre+ fires at any given time, closing roads, and taking some houses and businesses.

Well, the rains have come, and now there is Central Florida flooding.

It should put out a lot of the fires and will definitely help raise the levels in lakes, and the aquifer, but this will have to continue for a long time before the water shortage is made up.

The Hubble is back on its own with the service mission generally successful. There were a couple of things that don’t seemed to have been fixed by the new parts, but they are relatively minor.

Let the science and the great photographs resume.

Lots of buzz about what the ABC labeled a 47 million year-old primate skeleton.

What it is is an almost total fossil of a young female mammal that is probably in the line to lemurs and other primates. The problem is all of the people calling it a missing link, and implying things that haven’t been proven. Just because it is a very old fossil, and it obviously shares characteristics with modern primates, doesn’t mean that it is in the chain of creatures that led to humans. It could well belong to a branch that ended. Celebrate it for what it is, not for what some want it to be.

In addition to the almost complete skeleton, there is an impression of its soft tissue that provides a silhouette of what it looked like in life, and it was transitioning to its adult teeth, so there are two types of teeth available for study. It is a very rich source of research materials.

Annette Taddeo [D Miami] is thinking seriously about the Chief Financial Officer’s position and Jeff Atwater [R North Palm Beach], the current Florida Senate President has announced for the job.

There is a cluster of Democrats looking at the Attorney General’s job, but no one has said anything about the Agricultural Commissioner’s job, which is not exactly surprising, as Democrats can only get elected in urban areas because of the redistricting.

To make things confusing, Will McBride [R Orlando] who lost to Cruella de Harris in the 2006 Republican Senate primary is thinking of running for Attorney General.

Alex Sink’s husband, Bill McBride [D Tampa], who ran for governor in 2002, will probably be helping on her campaign.

There is too much name recognition involved in this one, especially among Panhandle Republicans.

As expected, Attorney General Bill McCollum announces run for Florida governor.

The State Republican Party is getting some backlash for its attempts to avoid primary fights.

The second article in the Miami Herald mentions that Cruella de Harris’s cousin, Adam “Howdy Doody” Putnam, is giving up his lucrative career as a joke in Congress to run for Agriculture Commissioner. Actually, he might know something about agriculture, and Tallahassee is more suited to his talents that Washington.

If Marco Rubio decides to take on Charlies Crist in a standard Florida Republican primary, Teddy the Wonder Lizard could beat the survivor. I can assure you, if you have never observed one of these spectacles, that both candidates will be shown to be criminals, sexual perverts, and atheists who support dropping pregnant women off of Interstate overpasses, 150% tax rates, and they will send stormtroopers to your house to seize your guns. Politics in Florida has a lot in common with professional wrestling. 😈

Reality check, the GOP and Dems are both short of money, and this isn’t a good environment in which to raise it. Both are trying to concentrate on the November election in 2010. This isn’t a matter of being undemocratic, it is the reality of being broke.

Let’s see, Iran has no effective enemies on its borders. Iraq is going to have an Iran friendly government. Hamas is still the majority party in the Palestinian parliament.

What about Lebanon? According to CNN: Analysis: Hezbollah win could shake Obama Mideast policy.

After 8 years of the neocons, Israel is more isolated than ever, Iran has risen as the major power in the region, and the US is still bogged down in two wars.

That certainly worked out well… 😈

The BBC reports on the White House meeting: Obama presses Netanyahu over two-state plan

Mr Netanyahu said he was ready to start peace talks “immediately” but refrained from endorsing a Palestinian state.

After their meeting in Washington, Mr Obama said he had suggested the Israeli prime minister had a “historic opportunity to get a serious movement” on Palestinian statehood.

Mr Netanyahu said Israel was ready to live “side by side” with Palestinians and he could resume talks immediately, but any agreement depended on Palestinian acceptance of Israel’s right to exist “as a Jewish state”, he added.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat reacted with derision to Mr Netanyahu’s remarks.

“How can I govern myself by myself as a Palestinian with his occupation going on on my neck on the hour every hour? With his roadblocks segregating our towns and villages and refugee camps?” he said.

The Palestinians have to recognize Israel “as a Jewish state” and renounce violence, but Israel doesn’t even have to recognize the existence of the Palestinian people.

The inclusion of “as a Jewish state” is recognition that sooner or later Jews will be a minority in Israel, so no one should get upset when non-Jews don’t get to vote in elections, have to wear colored badges, and can only live in specified areas. Before anyone decides to complain about my comments they should read the party platforms of the members of Netanyahu’s coalition.

At least Obama is holding firm on this issue, and the use of diplomacy with Iran.

I keep hearing people make this argument and it is done from ignorance of the legal system, especially the Federal system.

When the torture memoranda were written, Harriet Miers was Counsel to the President and David Addington was Counsel to the Vice President. They functioned as “defense attorneys” for the White House, and, as such, any opinions, no matter how off the wall, written in support of what their “clients” wanted to do was normal “lawyering”.

The memoranda were written in the Office of Legal Counsel of the Department of Justice by Jay Bybee, Assistant Attorney General, and John Yoo. Their “client” is essentially the people of the United States, not the Office of the President or the Office of the Vice President.

The Supreme Court of the United States, unlike the highest court in many states, does not issue advisory opinions. They don’t make a ruling unless a case progresses through the lower courts to them. Because of this, the Office of Legal Counsel provides the advisory opinions. The OLC is supposed to keep people out of trouble by telling them whether what they want to do is Constitutional and legal, based on the current laws and court rulings.

It isn’t the job of the OLC to find a way of doing something, it is to determine if it is legal and that’s why lawyers are calling for disbarment. Instead of doing their job, Bybee and Yoo were doing the job of the White House counsels. They were billing one “client” while working for another.

CNN reports that Top Republicans want apology or proof from Pelosi regarding the CIA.

I feel certain that if the CIA establishes in court, beyond reasonable doubt, to a jury of their peers, you know as was done in the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame, that Ms Pelosi is wrong, she will be every bit as gracious as the members of the Republican administration who were involved in the Plame case.

I think we can all agree that the Hedgemony set new standards for truth and politeness in government. 😈

Steve Benen’s post, Katrina Revisited, explains something that was bugging the hell out of me at the time: why wouldn’t they allow the military to help with Katrina?

The USS Bataan followed the storm and had helicopters, personnel, medical facilities, landing craft – all kinds of things that were needed to help, but it was never allowed to do it.

The helicopters and resources of the military’s two rotary wing training bases at Whiting Field and Fort Rucker were never allowed to help.

NAS Pensacola helicopter pilots were reprimanded for helping the Coast Guard in New Orleans.

The combat engineers of the local AF Redhorse squadron were finally sent by road to Biloxi, but were kept bottled up for days.

The AF Special Ops were sleeping near their aircraft ready to go after returning to their local bases following the storm, waiting for word. They were finally allowed to reopen the New Orleans airport.

It made absolutely no sense with all of the military capabilities available on the coast that they weren’t being used, as they have been used following every other major hurricane, especially since the Louisiana Guard’s equipment, and a large segment of their personnel were in Iraq. They regularly get sent to Central America, but not to New Orleans – Whiskey Tango Fox, Over?

Now we know it was Rumsfeld.

Kryten supplied another piece on Rumsfeld, The Undertaker’s Tally (Part 1) in comments.

The mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope has been very successful, and if everything that was hoped for wasn’t achieved, much more than was actually expected has been accomplished. The final application of new thermal blankets is in progress, and the telescope will be released tomorrow.

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2009 is in full bloom in Britain, and even if you aren’t a dedicated gardener, it is a wondrous thing to behold. Although it has been decades since I was there, I still have memories of aroma and colors. Most Americans have no true appreciation of the multitude of colors available in plants because “garden centers” only stock the “top 40” varieties.

So another member of the merry band of unemployed Haitians has been exonerated, but five were convicted of something. Unfortunately the judge’s decision in the resolution of the problem I discussed in MHNT – Episode Four – The Hedgemony Strikes Out Part Duh A, was to remove the stubborn juror, which is, as I said, the basis of the appeal. The Miami Herald covers the problem in Terror trial’s outcome may be tainted.

The problem is that jurors in the two previous trials couldn’t agree on what the evidence showed, so it should have come as no surprise that jurors in the third trial wouldn’t agree. The fact that one defendant was totally exonerated and the majority weren’t convicted on all counts, demonstrates a weakness in the case.

They should never have bothered with a third trial, and I can’t see this verdict being upheld, but who knows anymore.