Fables of the reconstruction

Nostalgia

In a webcomic on the decline of Internet Explorer:

I Don't Get Today's xkcd

A geek joke translation service: Explain xkcd.

Legislator Wants to Abolish Precedent

A member of the Iowa legislature, Jason Schultz, has introduced a bill:

A judicial officer shall not use judicial precedent, case law, penumbras, or international law as a basis for rulings. A judicial officer shall only use the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Iowa, and the Code of Iowa as the basis for any ruling issued by such judicial officer. The only source material that may be used for interpreting the Constitution of the United States by a judicial officer in this state shall be the Federalist papers and other writings of the founding fathers to describe the intent of the founding fathers, and if such source material is used, the full context of the source material must be used by the judicial officer.

This fails for both legal and common sense reasons. First of all, application of the Supremacy Clause prohibits states from interpreting the federal constitution in any way that contradicts the interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court or the applicable Circuit Court of Appeals. (The same goes for federal statutes, which Schultz's bill neglects to mention at all.) This bill implicitly makes an absolute claim of state sovereignty and denial of the authority of the U.S. government.  It amounts to a declaration of secession.

Secondly, due process under both the Iowa and U.S. constitutions requires that precedent have legal weight, at least in criminal matters. If a state supreme court rules on the interpretation of a criminal law, then people in that state must be entitled to rely on that ruling in guiding their own behavior. Schultz's bill, which is nominally about making judicial decision-making less variable, actually would have the opposite effect: Every judge who considered a statute would be required to decide what that statute meant de novo. No one could ever be truly sure was legal and illegal.

Which brings us to the common sense objection: Who makes decisions like this? Who reinvents the wheel every time an issue arises? It's idiotic to not consider what other people thought about any complex problem in the past when you approach a similar question. It's essentially mandated stupidity.

I know it's nutpicking, but look at the size of that nut. It's pretty big.

South Carolina Requires "Subversives" to Pay $5 Registration Fee

No, really:

Terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now register with South Carolina's Secretary of State and declare their intentions -- or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.

I disagree with the article when it says that this statute is "redundant" with current laws against terrorism. Advocating mass murder is not the same as committing it - advocating it is protected free speech. The article equates the law with those which imposes a tax on the proceeds of crime, but again, one has to commit a crime to profit from it. This statute is unconstitutional on its face.

While clearly aimed at brown people, the article raises the obvious question:

While the intention of the law is apparently aimed at Islamic terrorists, it's unclear in the law's wording whether it can be applied to right-wing militias, some of whom have reputedly called for the overthrow of the US government. The law states that "fraternal" and "patriotic" groups are exempt from the law, but only if they don't "contemplate the overthrow of the government."

To the extent there is any enforcement of this statute, I think it will be held to be unconstitutional as applied, because Tea Party types calling for the unconstitutional removal of Obama from office will tacitly be exempted from it.

I tend to agree with this:

"In the long and storied history of utterly retarded legislation in South Carolina, we may have finally found the legal statute that takes the cake for sheer stupidity, which we think you’ll agree is saying something."

(Via.)

D.A. Seth Williams Charges Philly Cop With Murder

Well, I was wrong. When he was sworn in last month, I predicted that the new Philadelphia District Attorney, Seth Williams, would not charge police officer Frank Tepper with murder. Yesterday, he did:

This morning, Williams said Tepper had been charged on a review of the evidence.

"The public demands that we apply the same standard of justice to every case regardless of the status of the victim or the defendant. And I have imposed that standard in this case," Williams said.

In addition to murder, Tepper is also charged with possession of an instrument of crime and recklessly endangering another person, Williams said.

Williams said that a grand jury indictment wasn't necessary. Good for him. (Also, smart of him to announce this while the city was in the grip of a state of emergency resulting from the snowstorm.) The police union head chief did not criticize the move. Williams must have squared them first.

This is not to say that all is well in Philly. A few of the factors that may have played into this decision: Tepper was off-duty. Tepper was visibly intoxicated. The cop and victim are white. The victim's community made an issue of it. Another similar case, with a black off-duty cop and black victim shot in the back, is in the pipeline. We shall see.

Congressman Murtha Dead

Per the radio.

The Shit I Miss

I was busy this weekend, and:

Seriously?

America Wins

The Tebows, Mannings and Bushes lose. All is right with the world.

Protégez-vous

(Via my friend Gloria.)

Local Programming: Drinking Coffee Liberally + Super Bowl Party at Triumph

Sunday, February 7th
12:30-2:30 p.m.
Drinking (Coffee) Liberally Mt. Airy
Mt. Airy Drinking Liberally meets every Sunday at Infusion Coffee + Tea (7133 Germantown Ave.), from 12:30 until 2:30 PM.

6 - 10 p.m.
Drinking Liberally Super Bowl XLIV Party at Triumph Sunday Evening
Come join us at Triumph Brewing to watch the big game between the Colts and the Saints. We'll start around 6 p.m., kickoff is 6:30 p.m.

Local Programming: Philly for Change Monthly Meeting Tonight at 7 p.m.

Wednesday, February 3rd, 7 - 9 p.m.
Philly for Change February Meetup
Philly for Change is the place to meet new and old activists and citizens in Philadelphia who want to make progressive change. Our regular monthly meetings are held on the first Wednesday of the month at 7:00 PM. We hold our MeetUp at Tritone, a bar located at 1515 South Street. Tritone has a full dinner menu and is easy to access for people with disabilities with a ramp, instead of stairs, at the entrance.

Turns Out, It Was Anti-Semites

The guy who commissioned the theft of the Auschwitz sign is a Swedish neo-Nazi. The Poles who stole the sign for him say they were just following orders.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Want to Know

Thoreau at High Clearing:

The Defense Secretary and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are asking Congress to allow gays and lesbians to serve openly. The biggest stumbling block at this point is a fear that if the draft is ever re-instated this policy would make Republican Congressmen and televangelists draft-eligible.

(Via Frank.)

Don't You Worry Your Pretty Little Head

Messaging, people. Messaging:

"Women sometimes need a little more handholding, or they need their friends to help them make a decision. And by our going in and talking to them and recruiting and educating and training them to either get involved in a campaign or become a candidate, we're giving them the tools so that they can do that on their own," [Republican National Committee co-chair Jan] Larimer added.

Why not just have a big strong GOP Daddy tell them what to do? Chicks dig that.

(Via Unstable Isotope.)

Afghanization

Via Joshua Foust, a reaction to a 60 Minutes piece on U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan:

When you live behind walls everything on the other side of those walls is a threat. When you isolate your forces from the population you are supposed to “protect,” then your forces have no ability to distinguish friend from foe, threat from normal routine, the good from the bad. Gen McChrystal can gob on all he wants about the importance of “COIN” and getting to know the people blah blah blah …. it doesn’t matter because he sets the operational rules here, and under his rules no conventional American troops can leave a FOB unless they have at least four MRAPS and 16 riflemen. How are you supposed to “protect the people” if you can only roll around in large road-bound convoys? How can you “protect the people,” if every night all your people have to be back on the big box FOB’s eating ice cream and pecan pie?

These SF guys are supposed to be the ones who know how to operate outside the big bases with the local population, but did you notice where they live? On a big box FOB, isolated and removed from their Afghan charges which is obvious, because none of them spoke a word of Dari or Pashto. ... They will never be able to gain the situational awareness required to do real COIN if they remain confined to the Big Box FOBs. That is the real story and as usual the MSM missed it.

(Links added for the military-acronym-impaired.)

Shades of another conflict I have read about. The author of the post is a military contractor and former regular U.S. Army infantryman, so animosity toward Special Forces is to be expected. But the point is: You can't win "hearts and minds" if you're safe and secure on your heavily-guarded base every night, but walking out among the population also means you will take a lot of casualties. The American public doesn't tolerate such losses as part of long conflicts with nebulous objectives and no clear-cut end. So, if you want to maintain political support for the war, then you can't actually use the strategy you have ordered.

This disconnect plays itself out at the small unit level, where in direct contradiction of COIN policy individual soldiers express contempt for the people, fail to acquire any local knowledge or language skills, and do things like shoot at vehicles carrying kids that don't represent any kind of threat. At best, you spend a hellish amount of money just treading water while you pray something happens that will allow you to leave without admitting you failed. At worst, what happens if that the situation deteriorates, the opposition kicks the ass of the indigenous force you just trained, your failure is obvious to everyone, and you're back to square one.

Tuesday Hopeless Optimism

Playing For Change: Song Around the World "Stand By Me" from Playing For Change on Vimeo.

(Via Sheila B. Scheuerman at TortsProf Blog.)

Local Programming: Drinking Liberally Center City Tonight 6-9 p.m.

Tuesday, February 2nd
6 - 9 p.m.
Drinking Liberally Center City
Center City DL meets from 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. every Tuesday in the upstairs bar of Triumph Brewing Co., located at 117 Chestnut St. (between Front and 2nd Streets), Philadelphia, PA 19106. There are $3 beers, $4 wine, $5 well drinks all night as well as happy hour food specials including half-price burgers.

Triumph Brewery is conveniently SEPTA-accessible via the Market-Frankford El (2nd Street station), all the buses that turn around at or near Penn's Landing (12, 17, 21, 33, 42, 48), and a few other buses that pass nearby (5, 25, 47, 57). Driving directions are here.

Ever Thought About Running for Office? Training on How to Run for Committee Person February 11th
Ever thought about running for office? Now is your chance. In Philadelphia there are over 6,700 local elected positions called "committee people" on the ballot on May 18th. Click here to download the Committee of Seventy's newly released "How to Run for Committee Person" manual. What is a committee person? Each of the city’s 1,684 voting divisions is represented by up to two Democratic and two Republican committee people. They register voters,"get out the vote," give rides to the polls, elect the ward leaders and work year-round on community issues.

Join the Committee of Seventy on Thursday, February 11th at 6:00 pm for a free "How to Run for Committee Person” candidate training at their office located at Eight Penn Center, 1628 JFK Boulevard, Suite 1002, Philadelphia, PA 19103. The training session is free of charge and all are welcome to attend. The Committee of Seventy is also partnering with groups across the city that are interested in informing their membership about this opportunity. If you or your organization is interested in an informational session or candidate training, contact Leah Pillsbury, Director of Civic Programs, lpillsbury@seventy.org or 215-557-3600 ext 109.

Join the Shooting Liberally Philadelphia Facebook Group
Like shooting or want to learn how to handle a gun? Shooting Liberally Philly meets about once a month to shoot at a center city range. Sign up for the Facebook group here to get announcements about future events, see pictures from prior outings, and participate in the discussion.

Center City DL Facebook group.
Philly DL Flickr group.
Shooting Liberally Philly Facebook group.

About Us
Drinking Liberally is a project of Living Liberally, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization which builds progressive community through social networks and events. Founded in 2003, Living Liberally has 342 chapters across the country. The Center City Philadelphia chapter of DL was started during the 2004 election and has met every Tuesday night since.

I-95 2010: May 2

Save the date.

What Cole Said

This:

I honestly have no patience to read through months of the insane scribblings of some PUMA nitwit to figure this all out, so I will just stick with what I know- Kevin K. is a solid dude and anything he needs, I will help him.

There seems to have been a new outbreak of panty-sniffing on the right the last few weeks. Some of the usual suspects in the Malkinverse were all worked up about some jackass writing letters to newspapers and decided to put on their sleuthing hats and out him. Nothing gets the amateur detective shut-ins in the right blogosphere harder than posting a screenshot publicly avaliable information and then patting themselves on the back about their investigative prowess.

As angry as I ever get about the right, it never occurs to me to try to go after their families. 

But did you know that Mithras is the god of Light? It's true.

Local Programming: Drinking Coffee Liberally

Sunday, January 31st
12:30-2:30 p.m.
Drinking (Coffee) Liberally Mt. Airy
Mt. Airy Drinking Liberally meets every Sunday at Infusion Coffee + Tea (7133 Germantown Ave.), from 12:30 until 2:30 PM.

All Without a Teleprompter, Too

The President debated the entire House Republican caucus today on live TV, and kicked their asses, according to reports. This makes some liberals want to puke.

Sometimes I don't understand people.

Tiller's Killer Guilty on All Counts

Now this is how you handle a terrorist:

After 37 minutes of deliberation, a jury today found Scott Roeder guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller.

Jurors also convicted Roeder of two counts of aggravated assault for threatening two men who chased him as he fled Tiller’s church after the shooting.

Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert set Roeder’s sentencing for March 9. Roeder faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The prosecution said it will pursue a “hard 50” sentence, which means 50 years in prison with no chance of parole.

Read him his Miranda rights, gave him a fair trial and counsel of his choosing, and everything. 

The trial also made clear that the terrorist Roeder had been influenced by then-Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline's unsuccessful attempts to prosecute Tiller for performing illegal abortions. This is a prime example of how anti-abortion "murder" rhetoric leads directly to actual murder.

You Know Who Else Believed in Global Warming? Hitler.

Great:

Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, blamed the United States and developed countries for not halting climate change and said that the global economy should immediately abandon its reliance on the American dollar, according to an audiotape released Friday by the broadcaster Al Jazeera....

“Noam Chomsky was correct when he compared the U.S. policies to those of the Mafia,” Al Jazeera quoted Mr. bin Laden as saying. “They are the true terrorists and therefore we should refrain from dealing in the U.S. dollar and should try to get rid of this currency as early as possible.”

Next up: Osama bin Laden on why we need single payer now.

Judge in Tiller Assassination Trial Denies Manslaughter Bid

Like I predicted, the judge gave the defense the opportunity to make a legal case for a lesser charge, and they failed to make it:

The judge in the trial of a man accused of murdering an abortion doctor dealt the defense a severe setback yesterday, ruling that the jury cannot consider a lesser charge of manslaughter.

The ruling came hours after Scott Roeder took the stand in his defense and admitted killing Dr. George Tiller, saying he acted to save the lives of unborn children.

So now Roeder has confessed to the crime and there is no defense. 

Also, good for the judge for doing this:

Earlier yesterday, the judge barred former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline from testifying for the defense after listening to a preview of Kline's testimony without the jury present.

Kline investigated Tiller's clinic, Women's Health Care Services, in 2006 because he suspected Tiller was violating state laws pertaining to late-term abortion. The case was later dropped because of jurisdictional issues.

Wilbert said much of Kline's testimony would have amounted to "exactly what this court seeks to avoid . . . a referendum on abortion."

Deep Thought

Why hasn't the President sent me an email yet? He always does every time he makes any public appearance.

Ah, there it is. And it seems he wants my help!

That Went Too Long

Good speech. Glad it's over.

Promoting Exports

We'll see how this plays out in practice:

Third, we need to export more of our goods. Because the more products we make and sell to other countries, the more jobs we support right here in America. So tonight, we set a new goal: We will double our exports over the next five years, an increase that will support two million jobs in America. To help meet this goal, we're launching a National Export Initiative that will help farmers and small businesses increase their exports, and reform export controls consistent with national security.

What's that last bit about? Export more dual-use technologies?

Core of the Speech

It's not exactly a tongue-lashing, but I will take what I can get:

Neither party should delay or obstruct every single bill just because they can. The confirmation of well-qualified public servants should not be held hostage to the pet projects or grudges of a few individual Senators. Washington may think that saying anything about the other side, no matter how false, is just part of the game. But it is precisely such politics that has stopped either party from helping the American people. Worse yet, it is sowing further division among our citizens and further distrust in our government.

So no, I will not give up on changing the tone of our politics. I know it's an election year. And after last week, it is clear that campaign fever has come even earlier than usual. But we still need to govern. To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills. And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that sixty votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well. Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it's not leadership. We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions. So let's show the American people that we can do it together. This week, I'll be addressing a meeting of the House Republicans. And I would like to begin monthly meetings with both the Democratic and Republican leadership. I know you can't wait.

Colloquial

It's interesting how the official text of the SOTU speech contains so much informal language, "Look, ... " and "about as popular as a root canal."

It's also a relief that he doesn't criticize the left, but calls out Republicans and the right for being obstructionist.

Bwahahahaha

This sounds serious:

Alleging a plot to wiretap Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O'Keefe, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group's credibility.

Also arrested were Joseph Basel, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan, all 24. Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, who is the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, the office confirmed. All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.

O'Keefe's confederates dressed up as telephone company employees, which I think is as serious a crime as the wiretapping. Buh bye.

(Via Unstable Isotope.)