Category — Uncategorized

CNN has the Associated Press story: Seattle airport removes Christmas trees to avoid lawsuit

After consulting with lawyers, port staff believed that adding the menorah would have required adding symbols for other religions and cultures in the Northwest. The holidays are the busiest season at the airport, Betancourt said, and staff didn’t have time to play cultural anthropologists.

Hanukkah begins this Friday at sundown.

“They’ve darkened the hall instead of turning the lights up,” said Bogomilsky’s lawyer, Harvey Grad. “There is a concern here that the Jewish community will be portrayed as the Grinch.”

Rabbi Bogomilsky wanted a menorah added among the Teutonic solstice symbols, and yes, Mr. Grad, Rush and O’Reilly will be “thundering” about this attack on symbols sacred only to followers of the ancient Teutonic gods that were introduced to the English speaking world by the German consort of a British queen in the 19^th century and copied by American magazines.

While the “thundering” of the media voices will not be the same as the thundering of the hooves of Cossack horses that gave rise to the term “pogrom”, it will be bad enough in its own way.

I might add that threatening lawsuits is not exactly friendly, nor is it indicative of a “real holiday spirit.”

Pat Lang at Sic Semper Tyrannis is running out of patience with the neocons, and decides to fold, spindle, and mutilate a David Brooks column in the post: The Children’s Crusade/Thirty Years War.

“1 – He shows no evidence of thinking that the situation in Iraq has passed beyond American ability to control events at the macro level. It is over, David, just over…”

Maybe if we performed the Dead Parrot sketch, inserting “Iraq” for “Parrot”, Bobo would understand. It’s worth a try, nothing else gets through.

“2 – Brooks is quick to condemn anyone who wishes to reverse the venture of American intervention in Iraq. He says nothing of the direct influence and prevalence of the neocons in causing the situation now prevailing in the Middle East generally and Iraq in particular.”

If you go back to the first Gulf War, the reason no attempt was made to pursue the Iraqis and take out Saddam at the time is because everyone agreed that removing Saddam would result in exactly what has happened. The Saudis, the Syrians, the Turks, the Kuwaitis, the Emirates, everyone agreed that Saddam’s regime was the only reason Iraq didn’t fly apart at the seams.

“Brooks and his friends are seeking to position themselves in such a way as to re-focus blame for catastrophe. This should not be allowed.”

Brooks et al. own the shards of Iraq. They are the ones who thought it was a reasonable idea to remove Saddam. They are the ones that formed the chorus to cheer on this disaster. They are the ones who ignored the facts and the considered opinions of people who have spent their lives studying the area. They are the ones who attacked every voice raised in opposition to the invasion.

It wasn’t surprising that the House Ethics Committee determined that no rules were broken in the Foley affair, Tom DeLay worked long and hard to ensure there were no rules left to break in his effort to hang on to power.

After taking over the House for the 110^th Congress the Democratic leadership needs to turn back the clock to a time when there were rules and there was an effective Ethics Committee to deal with them.

After that it is time to do something about their own “bad boys”.

We now know that Rahm Emanuel lied about his knowledge of the Foley affair. He will claim that “technically” he didn’t lie, but his intention was to lie and he accomplished it. We have gotten all the lies we have ever needed from the Republicans, so we don’t need any from Democrats.

And then there is the case of William “Cold Cash” Jefferson who was just re-elected in Louisiana. He is still under investigation and has never explained his actions.

Members of the House are elected by the people of their district, and the House shouldn’t overrule that decision without a finding of guilt, but there is nothing that requires the House to embrace them as brothers. They are entitled to all of the benefits of every other member of the House, but they are not entitled to anything more, and they shouldn’t receive anything more.

There has to be a cost associated with bad behavior or it will never end. If the Democrats don’t discipline their own members, they lose the moral standing to discipline others.

There are reasons for hiring outside consultants to do something. Usually you want to do something once or very rarely and it involves skills that are not available in your company. These are the same reasons you hire a plumber at home. You could take courses and buy all the tools, but it’s not very cost effective.

On the other hand if you are about to enter into a program that deals with the heart and soul of your operation, that will take decades, and will cost billions of dollars, it would probably be a good idea to have people in your organization watching the project very closely.

The Washington Post has an article up on MSNBC, Costly fleet update falters about the Coast Guard’s “Deepwater” project that shows what can go wrong when all of the control is given to an outside vendor:

The program’s failures are spelled out in a series of Government Accountability Office and Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s reports and in congressional testimony, which point to the leeway given to the program’s contractors, Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. Through their joint venture, Integrated Coast Guard Systems, the companies declined to comment, referring all questions to the Coast Guard.

Because of this program 8 of the 10 Coast Guard vessels at the Port of Miami are stuck at the dock because of an “upgrade” that failed. The Coast Guard doesn’t have the people to watch over the program, and the contractors have no incentives to do the job properly. This is another post-9/11, no-oversight, throw money at it, Republican tax give away.

Nadezhda at American Footprints also covers this and she has pictures of some of the “toys” that are included in the program.

I warned people two years ago what the so-called “anti-missile system” was all about, and now they are at it again.

It’s sad that the only function that Norad [North American Air Defense Command] is semi-competent at any more is tracking a jolly fat guy on a pre-determined path.

Inigo Montoya: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

When I noticed a headline recently that referred to the opponents of the Iraq War as Cassandras while the text of the article attempted to portray them as mistaken, I had to wonder if the headline writer was playing a joke, or the author of the article was having a “Vizzini moment.”

While I don’t expect that most people have memorized Bulfinch’s Mythology or they remember the Iliad from high school and/or college, they should have looked it up before using the word.

Cassandra was “cursed” by accurately predicting the future and having her predictions ignored.

The Iraq Study Group continued the practice by omitting testimony from those who accurately predicted the outcome of an invasion of Iraq and only listening to people who had already shown their lack of good judgment by supporting the war.

How many opportunities do these people get to be wrong, before the government and media decide to listen to people who were right?

Update: Via WTF is it now?, I went to Welcome to Pottersville and found the current reference to the Cassandra article in a Paul Krugman column. That it was in The Weekly Standard is not surprising.

Cat Daddy & Dr. Squeeky explain the Gates confirmation hearings.

Terry at Nitpicker notes that “supporting the troops” doesn’t include allowing them to call family and friends during the Holidays because of budget cuts. So he has the link up to donate to a Working Assets program to help out.

Fallenmonk notes the Campbell’s Soup Click for Cans campaign. Vote for your favorite NFL team and the winning city gets a Campbell donation to the local food bank. Good cause with a minimal effort.

Another record cold day down here and I have a head cold that is not helping me deal with it. Tomorrow will also be cold, so we can hope that fleas and other pests will die outside.

According to E.J. Dionne on NPR, the fact that this report came out before the Democrats had control of anything means the mess belongs to the Republicans.

David Brooks talked about people being upset by “political bickering,” ignoring the fact that the Republicans have been in charge, and the Democrats haven’t been able to do much of anything, so the only “bickering” that was even noticed was among the Republicans.

Apparently the Israeli government doesn’t want to talk to anyone, nor do the Kurds.

I think they need to take Mark Fiore’s Remedial Iraq Study Group course.

After the joint press conference today the BBC’s Nick Robinson was a bit nervous:

WASHINGTON DC: I’ve just been eyeballed long and hard by George Bush for suggesting he might be in denial re Iraq. It’s important, he told me, that you understand that I understand that it’s bad.

Commentors told Nick to expect extra scrutiny at the airport when he comes back to Britain. [Yes, some BBC personnel have official weblogs with comments.]

One might say that Whiskey Fire started this by saying that there was no reason to have Jose Padilla wear black-out goggles when he was removed from his cell for a dental appointment.

The response by Ann Althouse led to a post by Ann Altmouse, and then NTodd and Watertiger joined in the silliness.

Glenn Greenwald, who has been trying to be an adult about the “Ann Althouse enigma,” finally realized the futility in Today’s tour around the world of the Bush follower:

(2) Ann Althouse yesterday: “calling your opponent stupid is incredibly lame… an admission that you have no substance.”

Ann Althouse last week: “Glenn Greenwald is such an idiot. Am I supposed to respond to this foolishness? Glenn, you moron . . . , you disreputable slimeball? (And your writing is putrid.)”

Obviously, the interesting point here is not Ann Althouse. By itself, her observation yesterday that the treatment of Jose Padilla may have been justified by a fear that he would use his eyes to blink “coded messages” to The Terrorists says all that needs to be said about her, ever.

Let’s see, Padilla was being held in solitary confinement in a military brig with no outside contact and was being taken to a military dentist, so the obvious question to the suggestion of blinking to send a message would be: How would “terrorists” be in a position to see any message?

Steve Bates‘s friend Stella has a solar powered rainbow maker and Karen has a USB missile launcher that should keep small pets amused for an extended period.

If you had any doubts, the BBC reports: Richest 2% own ‘half the wealth’.

If you are feeling pretty good about your condition you should note: “In contrast, some citizens of the rich countries have more debt than assets – making them, the report says, among the poorest in the world in terms of household wealth.” This is the reason the housing bubble has had such an impact – when your largest asset is de-valued, you can become poor really quickly. I would note that property assessments will lag this decrease, so you will still be taxed on the higher value.