Releasing bin Laden Death Photos

I believe the photos will be released sooner rather than later, for the simple reason that they were taken by government agents on government time using government equipment. They belong to the US tax payers. There are two reasons that would justify withholding them in the near term: incitement to violence and compromising sources and methods. I'd guess that those liable to be incited to violence on the release of the photos, would be incited to violence by the killing of bin Laden itself and I haven't heard anyone argue that their release would compromise sources and methods.

Besides, a freedom of information request will eventually force their release.

I've no desire to see the photos myself. I've seen my share and hopefully my fill of gruesome photographs of the results of government action. In a previous life a played a role in releasing and distributing my share of gruesome photographs  of victims of government atrocities. Obviously, in this case Osama bin Laden isn't a victim and his killing isn't an atrocity (although some civil libertarians would beg to differ).

Political Courage

Political courage is sending a team of SEALs and CIA agents into a sovereign nation to eliminate a sworn enemy. Political courage is risking the lives of the operatives in a mission with no assurance of success. Political courage is ordering a risky mission whose failure will expose you as a bungling idiot. Political courage is risking ruptured diplomatic relations with said foreign nation to further your national interests.

Throwing the poor, the old and the disabled to the wolves while extending further tax cuts to the rich and the powerful is not political courage.

President Obama: He's Who He Said He Was

On August 1, 2007, then Senator Obama delivered a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center on the US response to 911. He clearly articulated his vision for the use of force. It's one that I wasn't entirely comfortable with, but I wasn't under any illusions when I voted for him. I didn't agree with the escalation of the war in Afghanistan, but that's exactly what he said he intended to do.

"The first step must be getting off the wrong battlefield in Iraq, and taking the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan."

He's in the process of withdrawing US forces from Iraq. He demonstrated a ruthlessness with regards to US interests that I found chilling.

"If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will."

His Democratic rivals assailed his supposed naiveté. Shortly thereafter when President Musharraf suspended the Pakistani constitution, he was revealed as prescient. His Republican opponent went further:


In July 2008, Larry King asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), “If you were president and knew that bin Laden was in Pakistan, you know where, would you have U.S. forces go in after him?”
McCain said he would not.
“Larry, I’m not going to go there and here’s why: because Pakistan is a sovereign nation.”


I'm uncomfortable with the notion that the US can swoop in anywhere and conduct military operations without the knowledge and consent of the host nation, but that is the world in which we live and President Obama broadcast his view on the matter well in advance of his election.

Agree or disagree with him, but he clearly telegraphed the policies he intended to pursue.

Long Form Birth Certificate

This morning President Obama released a copy of his long form birth certificate in a futile attempt to discredit the silly theory that he is a Kenyan-Indonesian Socialist Muslim bent on destroying America.

Does this change anything? No.

Why not? He's still black.

America Global Leadership

Last December when British college students were protesting (rioting) against plans to hike tuition fees I don't remember a lot of people asking what President Obama was going to do about it.

The United States doesn't govern the world (US micromanagement shouldn't be demanded just when black and brown people are involved).

Lottery Winnings & The Estate Tax

What's a fair rate of taxation for lottery winnings? Should society be entitled to any share of manna that falls into our laps because we had the good fortune (or foresight) to be standing in the right place at the right time? 35% on anything over $5 million sounds a bit low to me.

There's the concept of "noblesse oblige" in a moral economy where privilege needs to be balanced with a duty towards the less fortunate. Progressive taxation (including the taxation of estates) is the method of seeking such balance in civilized societies.

Those who are born into great wealth and privilege didn't do anything to earn the same. To paraphrase the late great Molly Ivins, if you're born on third base don't go around claiming to have hit a triple.

Hostage Negotiations & Punting

Over the past several days I've heard a lot of talk about punting on second or third down in reference to the tax-hostage situation President Obama is trying to resolve. I first heard of the concept of punting on second down over two years ago when a friend, Conrad, used it in reference to the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate. That was a truly disastrous play that might continue to haunt us for another generation.

I'm more inclined to liken the current situation to the end of a half where a promising game has gone increasingly awry. The clock is winding down and instead of trying for a touchdown, President Obama runs a play to get to his kicker's preferred hash marks for a field goal try. The fans are outraged. Some are calling for the coach to be replaced. The try can be blocked (Minnesota Viking fans don't need to be reminded of 1998 and sure bet field goal tries). Three points is obviously less than six, but a lot more than zero.

Folks, there's still another half to play (fortunately or unfortunately).

Safe and Respectful Distances

If those behind the Park51 Muslim community center (Cordoba House) project decided to relocate it on Mars, I doubt that it'll make a whit of difference. Most of the opponents of the project aren't concerned about its proximity to "Ground Zero" (that's a convenient excuse), they're incensed that freedom of religion also applies to Muslims in the United States.

In the past few months there's been vocal opposition to mosques and Muslim community centers in Murfreesboro, Tennessee 750 miles from "Ground Zero", Sheboygan, Wisconsin 732 miles from "Ground Zero", Temecula, California 2404 miles from "Ground Zero", Staten Island, New York 10 miles from "Ground Zero" and Florence, KY 575 miles from "Ground Zero".

Communities on both coasts and locations in between are not reacting out of respect for 9/11 families, but out of plain and simple intolerance with a dash of political opportunism thrown in for good measure.

Thanks to John McCain: Alaskans

It just occurred to me that the people of Alaska should really be grateful to John McCain for saving them from Sarah Palin. By thrusting her into the national limelight (probably one of the most irresponsible political acts this side of the 2003 Iraq invasion) he raised her profile and afforded her the opportunity to abandon the project of ruining Alaska in order to cash in on her newfound celebrity. The more we learn about her, the more nightmarish it becomes to imagine how much carnage she could have wrought in Alaska.

I still have faith, which I hope is not misplaced, that a plurality of Americans (real Americans) will never elect her to anything. She's punched her ticket as a former half-term governor and that's a great resume for Republicans and nativists. How it plays out for them is their problem. The Alaskan people (and moose) have been spared.

Hypocrisy Thy Name Is ...

I vaguely remember that during the interminable health care debate Republicans keep admonishing the Democrats for pursuing the reform effort in the face of popular opposition (we could parse how popular that opposition really was in terms of those who thought the reforms went too far and those who reckoned it didn't go far enough). This week they're opposing debate on financial regulations in the face of overwhelming public support for the proposed reform measures.

I know we're not a direct democracy (like Switzerland), but whatever happened to the will of the people? A few weeks ago, Republican leaders professed that crafting public policy should be subjugated to the vagaries of public opinion polls (when it benefited the health care industrial complex). This week polling doesn't matter in the interests of the financial industrial complex. Apparently, consistency is for wimps.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Mitch McConnell (and the Republican leadership).

Chicken Care

Senate hopeful Sue Lowden of Nevada came up with an ingenious idea of bartering chickens for health care. I'll suggest she license the idea before freeloaders start profiting from it without just compensation. The idea appears to be catching on and a helpful chicken converter web site has been set up to assist with figuring out how many chickens would be needed for various medical procedures.

Planning ahead, I checked on treatment for prostate cancer. Turns out it'll set me back 3514 chickens, so now I'm left with the trivial challenge of figuring out how to acquire and keep thousands of chickens in the suburbs before I'm stricken with prostate cancer. That should be easier than providing universal health care coverage.

Socialist Institutions & Free Market Solutions

I keep hearing from people who want to run government that government can't run anything. They claim that free market solutions are always preferable. They want to get rid of pesky little regulations that hinder industrial production, although they waffle when you try to pin them down on which areas of government oversight they'll get rid of (making sure our kids' toys are safe, our drinking water is clean, miners have safe working conditions, our food supply is free of contaminants, our prescription drugs are safe and effective, our doctors are certified and qualified).

I keep waiting to hear their proposals for free market alternatives to our socialist police departments, our socialist fire departments and our socialist highway transportation system. Our socialist single payer system ensures that if I call 911 the operator doesn't ask me if I'm covered for EMS, fire or police services, they just dispatch help as soon as they can. Our taxes pay for those vital services and we don't usually begrudge the recipients of such services.

Prediction Thread: North Carolina Senate

I'm no Nate Silver, so instead of trying and failing to match his analytical prowess, I'm just going to base my predictions on .. er, intuition (meaning I'll just pull them out of the air).


Elaine Marshall will defeat the incumbent Senator Richard Burr in November.

To get a sense of just how loony this prediction is, just keep in mind that Elaine Marshall doesn't yet have the backing of the Democratic establishment.

Tantrums as Political Strategy

If you're intransigent and indifferent or oblivious to the possible consequences, then you can probably get your way each time (if the counterparty is considerate or reasonable). There are some hostage situations where we're left with little choice but to give in. If my two year old holds his breath until he turns blue each time he wants a cookie, then I'm going to give him a cookie every time. Letting him die isn't an option. However, if he just threatens to hold his breath each time he wants a treat, then that's a different story and he won't get his way.

The GOP has instituted intransigence as an operating principle and political strategy. The more unified they are in opposition, the more partisan the Democrats appear. In this scenario, only GOP ideas can be bipartisan. Unified opposition renders any Democratic proposal partisan (even proposals previously championed by Republicans). Only in America can you be rejected at the polls in two consecutive elections (2006 and 2008) and insist that the victors implement your program and claim you speak for the American people (what part of rejection don't they understand). Only in America do we have a press corps that will continue to pay attention to such hypocrites. Tip for the media: President Obama and the Democrats speak for the American people, they earned convincing mandates at the polls. That's how democracies are supposed to operate.

The little tyke in the video below reminds me of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell:



let's learn from the response of the mom and the dog. Ignore him or nominate him for an Oscar.

How I Learned to Love Harry Reid

Over the past couple of years Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been greatly vilified by the wingnuts for marching at the head of the parade towards socialism and by progressives for his fecklessness in enacting the great progressive priorities (his poll numbers readily attest to that). I'll concern myself just with the friendly fire he's been receiving, by addressing some of the constraints he's been operating under. The oft repeated canard that he failed to deliver on progressive priorities when he had control of 60 seats in the Senate is almost willfully ignorant.

First the facts.

The Democrats emerged on the night of November 4th 2008 with the possible control of 58 seats (including two independents, Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman, who'd previously caucused with them). Let's remember that Senator Lieberman had actively campaigned for President Obama's opponent and that a lot of Democrats wanted him tossed unceremoniously out of the Democratic Senate Caucus. Senator Reid and President Obama managed to keep Joe Lieberman in the caucus (I doubt that stripping him of the chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee would have kept him in the fold).

With the party switch on April 28, 2009 by Senator Specter the Democrats reached 59 seats and when the race in Minnesota was finally settled and Senator Franken sworn in on July 7, 2009 the Democrats clinched 60 seats on paper (counting on a brain cancer stricken Senator Kennedy and an ailing nonagenarian Senator Byrd). Senator Kennedy probably cast about five votes between April and his death on August 25th (his appointed successor was sworn in on September 24th).

With the GOP strategy of blanket obstructionism, Senator Reid could be (and likely was) held hostage by any member of his caucus. Speaker Pelosi could lose 39 members of her caucus and still get major legislation passed in the House. Leader Reid couldn't afford to lose one member to even bring a bill to the Senate floor. For those who argue that in the face of GOP obstructionism Leader Reid should force them to actually filibuster live on C-SPAN, please consult this explanation from David Waldman over at Congress Matters. Short version: given Senate rules he really can't make anyone do anything.

Each time Harry Reid gets the Socialist Bernie Sanders to vote with Conservadems Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln it goes down as a minor miracle in my book.

Dawn Johnsen for the Supreme Court

Over the past year it's become an unofficial olympic sport for liberals and progressives to lament about being tossed under the bus due to the actions and inactions of the Obama administration. One such example was the lack of movement on the nomination of Prof. Dawn Johnsen to head the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) at the Justice Department.

Last Friday Prof. Johnsen withdrew her name from further consideration for the OLC position, news that would have made major waves on the left of the blogosphere had it not been somewhat overshadowed by the announced retirement of Associate Justice John Paul Stevens.

Was this a coincidence? What if President Obama is planning to nominate Prof. Johnsen to the Supreme Court? It'll certainly motivate and reassure the progressive base (for a few weeks, at least) and drive the wingnuts even crazier.

Dawn Johnsen has stints at the ACLU and NARAL Pro-Choice America on her resume as per her Wikipedia page and Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg also had a stint at the ACLU (just saying).

Her brother-in-law, Judge David Hamilton, was nominated and confirmed to the Seventh Judicial Circuit last year.

I'll still bet on Solicitor General Elena Kagan, but won't be the least bit surprised if it was Dawn Johnsen.