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Ramblings From the Ragged Crumbling Edge Of The Reality-Based Community

Friday, June 24, 2005

A MILLION OF ANYTHING IS...LIKE...ALOT!

...long before I succumbed to whatever darker spirits that led me to this evil blogging passion, I was a blog reader. One of the very first blogs I read on a daily basis back in the day was skippy the bush kangaroo. Our happy little marsupial blogger is approaching his third anniversary and, just by coincidence borne of faithful readers like me, he is also approaching his one millionth visitor. He thinks that it would be really cool to get that one-millionth hit just about the time they wheel that cake witht the big candy "3" on it into the main conference room at skippy, international, llp, and I have to say I agree. Although skippy moves unknown among the masses, it is possible to hear his actual taped live voice from a broadcast of the Bluegrass Radio Review as he waxes knowledgably about life, 'roo love (might want to have the kids miss that part), and politics - both local and national. He even finds time to dish some dirt on his on-blog cohorts, proving once again that bizarrely constructed mammals from the southern hemisphere are cruel but resourceful masters. Anyway, stop by, give the podcast a listen, and have a good time...because having a good time is what skippy's domain is all about (which would explain all those Foster Lager cans in the comment section)...
Posted by: Jack K. / 2:09 PM 0 comments
THE ITALIAN JOB REDUX

...there was a time, once, when Italy was an ally of the United States. Back before we began displaying such a cavalier attitude about killing its citizens, Italy was our friend. That may all be starting to come to an end now. An Italian judge has ordered the arrest of 13 persons, alleged to be CIA operatives, for the kidnapping of suspected terrorist Abu Omar off the streets of Milan and then shipping him off to Egypt - that "extraordinary rendition" thing - to see if the magic of alternating current electricity would make any particular thoughts occur to him that he might think US agents would find interesting. Not that Italian officials have any particular sympathy for Omar; they had been conducting their own investigation into possible terrorist activities by Omar. It's much more of an issue of the rights of soverign states, apparently, than the mere act of kidnapping, although snatching people off the streets is - technically - against the law, regardless of how bad those people are. The matter is complicated by the tight-lipped silence of the Berlusconi government regarding whether they gave permission for - or even knew of - the proposed snatch...

...its like something out of a le Carre novel. Shady faces, fake names and false passports, cover stories and detailed plans. The only things missing are the dark, rain-slickened street, the sputtering streetlight, and a bunch of trenchcoats. We are still left, however, with the one constant that circles like a binding thread through the whole saga of our War on Terra. Torture is the key, the engine driving our efforts, the thing that makes the world go 'round. We will torture detainees on our own and then call it discomfort and then blather on about humane treatment when that other story falls apart, hoping against hope that we can get control of all those damned digital cameras, leaked documents, and loose, disgruntled lips. When we can get away with it, we'll skip the "detainee" fable altogether and rely on the asistance of other foreign 'friends' who aren't as institutionally squeemish about the whole thing to do our softening and information extraction for us. By no means will we let issues of international law or sovereignty stand in our way. That stuff is for suckers, wimps, and liberals. 'Cause we're at war, baby; Karl Rove said so. We don't need no stinkin' indictments when we can just kidnap people off the streets and hook 'em up to the house current....



...and NO, I don't know why Blogger is doing this...
Posted by: Jack K. / 12:49 PM 0 comments

Thursday, June 23, 2005

PROPERTY RIGHTS AND WRONGS

...THIS is just simply stunning. It's hard to even grasp - much less wrestle around to try to find the words for - the dramatic changes that might pound down on any normally accepted definition of "property rights" after this decision. Beyond that, it's the best example this week that I could ever find to point to as an explanation for why I'm not a gamblin' man, because if I were I would have cheerfully taken pretty long odds on SCOTUS actually affirming the supremacy of private property rights, especially in a case like this where the only government rational to invoke eminent domain was to increase the tax base through the proposed private development. That is stretching the concept of 'public good' just about as far out of shape as possible and still be able to claim that it's recognizable...

...there's a fascinating Oregon-twist lurking behind the curtain in all of this. Call it government's ultimate revenge. Think of it: Farmer Brown decides to cash out and, using Measure 37 requirements (reparation or release from land use requirements passed since the current owner took possession), forces the county to allow him to build 300 homes on his once prime rutabaga ranch. This eventually leads to some of his neighbors who meet those requirements and have grown tired of all these new neighbors constantly complaining about the noise and dust created by their rutabaga ranching operations to force the county to allow them to suburbanized their farm land, too. This dramatic expansion catches certain entrepreneurial eyes, and suddenly Wally the Retail Juggernaut decides that these people need a Super Duper Store. The county, recognizing the vast public benefit that lies in the tremendous increase in tax revenue the Super Store would accrue over a bunch of single family dwellings, points it's God-like finger of eminent domain at a couple of neighborhoods and - poof - they are toast...history...out on the street with a handful of bucks in their pockets from that remarkably low fair market value price offered just before the D-8 came in through the breakfast nook bay window. The United States Supreme Court said it's legal...and what was once designated as prime agricultural land now has low low prices all the time, which never could have happened had not the first Measure 37 claim been made. Fascinating stuff...

...it's pretty clear from this ruling that your home is your castle now only to the degree of the quality, quantity, and caliber of your assault weaponry and your property rights will be protected only as long as the ammo holds out. Beyond that, government has the right to take your property on it's unilateral determination of just compensation any time it wants for just about any purpose it wants, just as long as it can use the phrase "public benefit" without snorting coffee out it's collective nose. Like I said, it's a stunning decision, and today there are a few more bricks missing from the wall that protects us from the power of the state...


UPDATE:

...it slipped my attention before, but I just noticed the makeup of the Justices in this 5-4 decision. It was the most conservative judges - Scalia, Thomas, Rhenquist, along with O'Conner - who opposed this sweeping expansion of property taking by governments. It will be interesting to see how this affects the tone of the debate over federal judicial nominations, now that we have the vision of "liberal" judges running roughshod over the property rights of the individual to the benefit of the state...
Posted by: Jack K. / 11:01 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

ONE STEP FORWARD, A STEP AND A HALF BACK

...for a number of years, back in the early '80's, I labored in the Cascade Mountains of southwest Washington inside the blast zone and ashfall area created by the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. In those early years, these areas were notable for the two feet or more of new volcanic ash that lay on the ground, an unconsolidated loose walking surface that made walking up any slope - much less the relatively steep mountainsides that I frequented - something akin to walking up a huge pile of devilishly small ball bearings. It was good for the heart, probably good for the soul on the reflection of a great many years removed, and tremendous exercise, but in the moment it just simply sucked the big one, especially at the end of the day with the ride home being a few thousand feet above you at the top of some denuded sun-scorched ash-gray ridge. For every upward step it seems as though you slid backward downslope a stride and a half, forcing the heartbreaking contemplation of an effort to toil up the side of the mountain that may well end in the bottom of the friggin' canyon for all the progress that seemed to be happening at the moment. Tonight, true believers of the Democratic faith have a taste (or maybe it's another taste) of how that feels...

...for all the faint thrilling stirrings that have accompanied seeing actual Democrats standing up on their hind legs and challenging the party in charge on a number of fronts, the sight of Senator Dick Durbin actually apoligizing in the well of the Senate was that slide backward down the slope, that 1 and a half step (and maybe more) backward slide. The trembling emotion of his apology was, if anything, the perfect way for the faithful to capture that desperate panic I used to feel. The reasons for the sort of sad, empty regret that party faithful have to be feeling over this capitulation by Durbin are easy, if numerous. First of all, what he said and what he is accused of saying are two distinct things, although it apparently acquires the sort of intellectual discipline to understand that is beyond the means of the MSM. Second, if the continual pounding storm of evidence from a wide variety of reliable sources concerning prisoner abuse at Guantanamo is to believed - even by half - it's hard to understand just exactly why we should be either supportive or proud of the particular men and women in uniform who are engaging in the acts of which they are accused. People at the dog pound get fired and prosecuted for treating animals in the manner described in FBI reports about Gitmo prisoner treatment. Maybe I'm missing something here (I must admit I sometimes do), but I fail to see why anybody should be all that terribly concerned about offending any soldiers by these comments, based on the simple principle that the only soldiers who should even care are those who are involved in handling prisoners. More to the point on this particular issue, Durbin didn't speak to the behavior of soldiers at all; he referred to treatment by persons unknow observed by an FBI agent. If those persons unknown were soldiers, they'd be getting an apology from me about the time Hell entered a competitive bobsled team in the Winter Olympics...

...Republican outrage is a manufactured item (probably from China). The only thing the Republicans want is for the issue to go away and for the disenters to shut up, because this whole mess has their fingerprints all over it (along with the hair strands and semen and other bodily fluid - except for those the 'detainees' are forced to expell on themselves while trussed up naked like rabbits headed to the meatmarket). It doesn't require the skill of the CSI crowd to figure out who the perps are in this particular episode and the blame runs high and wide. Durbin didn't say anything more outrageous, if you're perched in the right tree to watch this debate, than anything any number of Republicans say every day, as a matter of fact, as if it were some part of a natural conversation as common as neighbors discussing the weather across the fence. Democrats, however, just can't seem to break out of those binding chains of political correctness that have bound them for so many years. All it takes is some manufactured sense of outrage picked up by the media, coupled with a couple of over-the-fence Democrats, and featuring an angered claim that the commments are an insult to our men and women in uniform, and that step-and-a-half backward slide begins. No spirited defense of what was actually said - much less what is alleged to have happened; no proper insistence that if any uniformed personnel were involved in the mistreatment of defenseless prisoners they goddammed well don't deserve any respect, unless they are willing to offer to trade themselves for any American troops that might be captured by some foreign group that doesn't much hold with the Geneva Conventions somewhere down the road. Just an emotional (the grimly sardonic might say sniveling) apology. In some respects, it's all a product of the successful demonization of "liberals" and all the things that are wrong with that, but that's a subject of sufficient depth that it could be a lengthy post all of it's own. Sufficient to the day itself is the fact that Dick Durbin apologized for something he didn't have to, for all the wrong reasons, and only to the benefit of the Republican party who's members don't suffer even the slightest twing of conscience - and are very seldom ever called to account - for having said far more disgusting and disturbing things about Democrats and anybody else who isn't on board with their agenda just about every day of the week....
Posted by: Jack K. / 9:20 PM 0 comments

Sunday, June 19, 2005

PLAYING AT RECESS WITH BOLTON

...it came up as a question on Fox News Sunday for Condi Rice. Would Gee Dub consider giving John Bolton a recess appointment during the upcoming 4th of July Senate recess to bypass - for the remainder of this session, at least - the refusal of Democrats to confirm him as UN Ambassador. My logical first reaction to her suggestive but not exact affirmation of that idea was "oh, please, oh, please, oh, please". The old adage about the proof being in the pudding was originally but unknowingly crafted for just such an eventuality as this. The book on Bolton is clear; he is a strong and stalwart defender of his particular conservative beliefs and positions and is accused to be willing to use all the tools available to him to either sway or neutralize anyone who stands in disagreement to those beliefs and positions. Any number of professional acquaintances have been willing to speak to the pain, anger, fear, and frustration that have marked his passage through their lives. A bit of the hair of the dog, in the form of a recess appointment, might just be the thing that hits the spot in this particular case...

...there is no question that Bolton has an agenda with regard to the UN; the only murky point is whether his desire is simply for that body to be a rubber stamp for the sort of twisted Pax Americana world domination that the PNAC brand of neoconservatives truly hunger for or whether he's more of an old-school Jesse Helms type of conservative that believes that there just simply isn't any place for some semblance of a 'world government' that can exerting any degree of influence on America's actions. In any case, it would be truly fascinating to give him a shot at the UN Ambassador job with a date-certain termination date, sort of a trial run at being the real deal, as it were. Yes, there are certain risks regarding the damage that he could do during his months in the position, but there's a pretty good chance that there wouldn't be any question at the end of that period just what exactly the American people were buying when the renewed effort to confirm him came up, which it surely must, given the grim determination of the Bush Monkeys to keep bombarding the Senate with the same nominees until resistance either ceases or is finessed. There is naturally a part of me that is repelled by even the chance of a recess appointment; a large enough bull in a small enough china shop can reek a big ol' bunch of damage in a short time. But, what the hell; I've already been a contrarian of sorts. I say "bring it on" and let's see how the rest of the game plays itself out....
Posted by: Jack K. / 8:20 PM 0 comments

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