I think Stan Williams should receive clemency.

His is the quintessential redemption story. As a nation we need to acknowledge redemption is possible.

Governor agrees to Williams hearing
Convicted killer gets closer to possible clemency
- Charles Burress, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, November 26, 2005

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided to hold a clemency hearing Dec. 8 for Stanley Tookie Williams, the condemned killer who has attracted a number of high-profile backers calling for his life to be spared.

It is believed to be the first time a California governor has held such a hearing since 1992, when Gov. Pete Wilson considered the appeal of condemned killer Robert Alton Harris, Schwarzenegger's office said Friday. Wilson denied the appeal.

Bush has been laying the groundwork, in the form of a secure forward position, for this for quite a while.

Bush to Asia: Freedom Is More Than Markets
By Dan Blumenthal and Tom Donnelly
Sunday, November 27, 2005; B05

Obscured by the unblinking spotlight on Iraq, the most significant strategic development of President Bush's second term is occurring in the shadows. If it can overcome the well-entrenched yet outdated policies of the past, the Bush Doctrine may be coming to East Asia, and the mere possibility is making foreign policy realists run the way the citizens of celluloid Tokyo used to run from Godzilla or the giant winged Mothra.

Quote of note:

"No one is sleeping on it," Russo said. "Everybody is working to resolve it. But the criminal justice system is at a standstill. We will be forced to make a decision as to which of these defendants are going to have to be released."

Justice Is Another Victim of Katrina
Some suspects go free because the system lacks the means to charge them; more wait behind bars. And cases mount along with new crimes.
By Scott Gold
Times Staff Writer
November 26, 2005

NEW ORLEANS — It was telling, one recent morning, that despite the presence of prosecutors, defense attorneys, bailiffs and 27 shackled inmates in orange jumpsuits, New Orleans Magistrate Anthony J. Russo felt compelled to point out: "This is a court."

3 L.A. Hospitals Take Patients to Skid Row
The disclosures come as the city grapples with 'dumping' of the indigent downtown.By Cara Mia DiMassa and Richard Winton
Times Staff Writers
November 26, 2005

Three Los Angeles hospitals regularly put discharged patients with nowhere to go into taxicabs bound for skid row, hospital officials acknowledged this week.

Officials at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles and Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center said the practice is necessary because skid row is the only place in Southern California with a concentration of social services for the patients, including homeless shelters and drug and alcohol programs.

Subtitled "Reality...what a concept!"

U.S. Starts Laying Groundwork for Significant Troop Pullout From Iraq
By Paul Richter and Tyler Marshall
Times Staff Writers
November 26, 2005

WASHINGTON — Even as debate over the Iraq war continues to rage, signs are emerging of a convergence of opinion on how the Bush administration might begin to exit the conflict.

In a departure from previous statements, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this week that the training of Iraqi soldiers had advanced so far that the current number of U.S. troops in the country probably would not be needed much longer.

Quote of note:

"The problem," Mr. Pattison said, "is that the states are like the guy who had been laid off and his income went way down, and now he's got a job again. But in the meantime, he put a lot of expenses on his credit card, his kids' tuition went up and he tapped into his retirement fund. That's exactly what a lot of states did."

During the lean years, states resorted to a lot of one-time fixes to balance their budgets while maintaining services. They cut spending, raised taxes, drew down their rainy-day funds, relied on federal programs, delayed payments to employee pension funds and borrowed heavily. Now they are coping with the hangover from those stopgap solutions.

States' Coffers Swelling Again After Struggles
By JOHN M. BRODER

Things aggregate and disaggregate. They just do. Quarks to baryons, baryons to atoms, atoms to molecules and macroscopic materials. In far from equilibrium conditions (such as when you're circling a star that pumps you full of photons), matter and energy tend to form dissipative structures...things that are more activity than object because they require constant input olf energy to maintain their form and structure.

This is physics, but the repercussions literally carry forward to the highest levels of organization that exist. Things aggregate, things disaggregate. No nation is eternal, no aliance lasts forever, Babe Ruth's NY Yankees don't exist anymore...Reggie Jackson's NY Yankees don't exist anymore.

This being my viewpoint, The Fate of the State by Martin Van Creveld was interesting.

In Sweet Land of Giving, Mr. Krauthammer sends the message that, regardless of the errors and brutalities inflicted in our name, Americans are a good people that seek freedom and goodness for everyone. The vehicle for the message is a recounting of the statues of various movement leaders from across the world, statues planted across Washington DC.

But Washington has a second distinction, more subtle and even more telling about the nature of America: its many public statues to foreign liberators. I'm not talking about the statues of Churchill and Lafayette, great allies and participants in America's own epic struggles against tyranny. Everybody celebrates friends. I'm talking about the liberators who had nothing to do with us.

Quote of note:

The network, which is still being developed, will air 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and include a political morning show hosted by Al Sharpton. Earlier this year Sharpton signed a deal to host a talk radio show for Chicago-based Matrix Media, which syndicates radio programs. But that show has yet to air, and Liggins said Radio One has locked Sharpton into a new agreement.

Brothers Doug and Ryan Stewart of "The 2 Live Stews" sports show on an Atlanta AM station will host the afternoon drive. Their three-hour show brings together hip-hop and sports talk. Liggins said he is still trying to negotiate deals with other talent and could not discuss the rest of the lineup.

Liggins Sees Black Talk-Radio Opportunity
By Krissah Williams
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 25, 2005; D01

Understatement of note:

White House counselor Dan Bartlett acknowledged the concern. "I do think that it demonstrates that if you spend enough money and repeat the charge enough, the old political axiom in Washington can come true: that charges left unanswered can stick," he said.

Dude, that's the entire Repoublican political strategy. Bush has a different problem, though...the "charges" can't be responded to honestly.

Since this is about public relations instead of honest debate, and since Republicans can only repeat their previously exhausted rhetoric, I suggest dated film clips of major Republican spokesmen (Cheney is a particularly good target) saying the same things over and over. Like, show a clip of the first time Cheney said "stay the course" followed by the death toll at the time, followed by as many examples presented the same way as deemed appropriate.

Bush is vulnerable to similar framing. And you can also string together clips of major Republican spokesmen repeating the same language for the same talking points to frame them as unthinking obedient clones.

Anyway... 

Bush Faces Dual Challenges on Iraq
By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 25, 2005; A01

Quote of note:

This is the other land laid low by Katrina's fury. Like New Orleans to the west, hundreds of square miles of Mississippi coastland look little better than they did in early September, and many people here harbor anger that the federal government has fallen short and that the nation's attention has turned away. At least 200,000 Mississippians remain displaced, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is short at least 13,000 trailers to house them.

In Miss., Time Now Stands Still
Recovery Is Stagnant In Post-Katrina Towns
By Michael Powell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 25, 2005; A01

Here on Staten Island we're down to two understaffed hospitals. One, is run by St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Centers, which has filed for bankruptcy so it's more like one and a half.

There's going to be a meeting to discuss the situation December 7, 2005, 7 pm at

Calvary Presbyterian Church
909 Castleton Ave
Staten Island

Things to see, people to do...

I've been pretty boring this week. Will likely be so for the rest of the week. 

Iraq and the 'L' Word
by Richard Cohen
Tuesday, November 22, 2005; Page A29

Along with such creations as American POWs still being held in Vietnam and the Bill Clinton drug-smuggling operation at a remote Arkansas air strip, the unhinged right wing has now invented the myth that Democratic members of Congress have called President Bush "a liar" about Iraq. An extensive computer search by myself and a Post researcher can come up with no such accusation. That's prudent. After all, it's not clear if Bush lied about Iraq or was merely the "useful idiot" of those who did.

The New York Times has an op-ed on labeling organic food...sorta...and tempting as it is to post all the organic stuff, the salient part for the point I want to make is this:

If Big Organic gets its way, xanthan gum (an artificial thickener), ammonium bicarbonate (a synthetic leavening agent), and ethylene (a chemical to ripen tomatoes and other fruit) will be permitted in products labeled organic, despite a court ruling last June saying they are not acceptable. Whatever the outcome of that fight, consumers should look beyond the organic label and seek out producers that exceed the federal rules.

The New York Times says 

The Padilla case was supposed to be an example of why the administration needs to suspend prisoners' rights when it comes to the war on terror. It turned out to be the opposite. If Mr. Padilla was seriously planning a "dirty bomb" attack, he can never be held accountable for it in court because the illegal conditions under which he has been held will make it impossible to do that. If he was only an inept fellow traveler in the terrorist community, he is excellent proof that the government is fallible and needs the normal checks of the judicial system. And, of course, if he is innocent, he was the victim of a terrible injustice.

The same is true of the hundreds of other men held at Guantánamo Bay and in the C.I.A.'s secret prisons.

...which is true, but continues on to say

Saying No to Bush
In the old days, China’s leaders would often release political prisoners ahead of a presidential summit. Why Hu felt confident enough to break the mold.
WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Melinda Liu
Newsweek
Updated: 3:36 p.m. ET Nov. 22, 2005

...With China’s economy and international influence growing fast, bilateral mood music is now much different. Just a few years ago Chinese authorities often sounded evasive, defensive or churlish when they rebuffed U.S. pressure for improved human rights.

But in an appearance alongside Bush,  Hu was unruffled. He told reporters that the progress of human rights in China would be based on “national conditions” and the mainland’s “historical and cultural heritage.”  Translation: we’ll democratize on our own terms and our own timetable (and what’s the deal with Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, anyway?)

Quote of note:

"When I lived in New Orleans, I had a house, a good job, an SUV and a Cadillac," said Joseph Melancon, 45, who left the meeting in frustration after many questions went unanswered. "And now I have a job here, but I don't have a place to live."

...After December 1, the city of New York will help pay for some hotel bills for the 487 Katrina victims in New York hotels, but shelters might be the only option for some.

"While it's not the city's goal, we do have homeless shelters available," said Monica Parikh of the Department of Homeless Services.

Some Katrina victims face NY homeless shelters
Fri Nov 18, 2005 5:43 PM ET
By Anna Driver

Quote of note:

"There was no discussion of him personally being a coward or about any person being a coward," Bubp said.

Schmidt in war of words
Rookie lawmaker's 'coward' remarks ricochet
By Malia Rulon
Enquirer Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Three days after Rep. Jean Schmidt was booed off the House floor for saying that "cowards cut and run, Marines never do," the Ohioan she quoted disputed the comments.

Danny Bubp, a freshman state representative who is a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, told The Enquirer that he never mentioned Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., by name when talking with Schmidt, and he would never call a fellow Marine a coward.

Two Ejected From Bush Event in Denver File Federal Suit
By KIRK JOHNSON

DENVER, Nov. 21 - Two people who say they were ejected from a taxpayer-financed appearance by President Bush in March because of an antiwar bumper sticker filed a federal lawsuit here on Monday, charging that event staff members and federal employees broke the law.

The suit, filed in Federal District Court by lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union, could transform what had been a public-relations thorn for the Bush administration into a legal thicket. A.C.L.U. lawyers said they would pursue in particular the question of who gave orders to workers at the event, held March 21 at the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver.

Quote of note: 

While some churches allowed Democrats to speak from the pulpit, the conservative Christians last year mounted an especially intense - and successful - drive to keep President Bush in office. Some issued voter guides that pointedly showed how their own religion was allied with Mr. Bush's views. Several Roman Catholic bishops even suggested that a vote for John Kerry would be a mortal sin. Since the election, Republicans have held two openly political nationally televised revival meetings at churches to support Mr. Bush's judicial nominations.

If the I.R.S. is pursuing any of those churches, we certainly have not heard from them about it.

Taxing an Unfriendly Church

Shortly before the last election, a former rector at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., gave a fiery antipoverty and antiwar sermon. He did not endorse a presidential candidate, but he criticized President Bush's policies in Iraq and at home. Now the Internal Revenue Service has challenged the church's tax-exempt status. It's important to know just how the tax police have chosen this church - and other congregations - to pursue after an election that energized churchgoers of most denominations.

I.R.S. officials have said about 20 churches are being investigated for activities across the political spectrum that could jeopardize their tax status. The agency is barred by law from revealing which churches, but officials have said these targets were chosen by a team of civil servants, not political appointees, at the Treasury Department. The I.R.S. argues that freedom of religion does not grant freedom from taxes if churches engage in politics.

That should mean that the 2004 presidential campaign would be an extremely fertile field.

There are those who have suggested France's Muslim problem is the result of being "very liberal," i.e. providing government support of a non-French culture.

Bullshit.

And by way of proof I present two sources from opposite sides of the political spectrum:

Quote of note:

"What's wrong with our school system, and what's wrong with the people running our school board?" asked Tess Blanks, who had lived here all her life before fleeing with her husband, Horace, to the Houston area, where they discovered that the public schools for their two children were significantly better. "Our children fell right into the swing of things in Texas. So guess what? It isn't the children. It's the people running our school system."

Seeing Life Outside New Orleans Alters Life Inside It
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY
NEW ORLEANS

TALK to the people trickling back here, and it becomes apparent that before the hurricane, many had about as much experience living elsewhere as Ignatius J. Reilly, the protagonist in one of the seminal novels about New Orleans, "A Confederacy of Dunces," who had set foot outside this exceedingly rooted city only once (and rued doing so).

Quote of note:

Few people in Congress are openly threatening to block money for reconstruction. More typical are sotto voce mumblings about whether federal money will be squandered through incompetence or graft by Louisiana officials. And some lawmakers have openly wondered whether each neighborhood in New Orleans needs to be rebuilt and protected with expensive floodwalls.

Louisiana Sees Faded Urgency in Relief Effort
By JAMES DAO

BATON ROUGE, La., Nov. 18 - Less than three months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, relief legislation remains dormant in Washington and despair is growing among officials here who fear that Congress and the Bush administration are losing interest in their plight.

Quote of note:

Although outrage has focused on the existence and symbolism of the black sites, comparatively little attention has been paid to the concerns -- if not outright objections -- of many distinguished CIA veterans about these sites and the use of torture in general. It's not just that such behavior is largely impractical, they say; it's that even by the morally ambiguous standards of espionage and covert action, the abuse is simply wrong.

Speaking at a College of William and Mary forum last year, for example, Burton L. Gerber, a decorated Moscow station chief who retired in 1995 after 39 years with the CIA, surprised some in the audience when he said he opposes torture "because it corrupts the society that tolerates it." This is a view, he confirmed in an interview with National Journal last week, that is rooted in Albert Camus's assertion in Preface to Algerian Reports that torture, "even when accepted in the interest of realism and efficacy," represents "a flouting of honor that serves no purpose but to degrade" a nation in its own eyes and the world's. "The reason I believe that torture corrupts the torturers and society," Gerber says, "is that a standard is changed, and that new standard that's acceptable is less than what our nation should stand for. I think the standards in something like this are crucial to the identity of America as a free and just society."

CIA Veterans Condemn Torture
By Jason Vest, Government Executive
© National Journal Group Inc.
Saturday, Nov. 19, 2005

Detroit 'Sleeper Cell' Prosecutor Faces Probe
Grand Jury Considering Indictment for Misconduct
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 20, 2005; A03

DETROIT -- Once trumpeted as one of the Justice Department's significant triumphs against terrorism, the case targeting the so-called "Detroit sleeper cell" began less than a week after the attack on the World Trade Center. It was only after a jury convicted two men of supporting terrorism that the flimsiness of the government's case became clear.

As hidden evidence spilled out and the Justice Department abandoned the effort, federal investigators began to wonder whether the true conspiracy in the case was perpetrated by the prosecution.

A Rebuilding Plan Full of Cracks
After the routing of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Bush administration launched a $73 million program to construct schools and clinics. But design flaws and other problems soon plagued the effort.

By Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 20, 2005; A01

MADRASAH, Afghanistan On a humid morning, scores of women and wailing babies crowded into the dirt courtyard of a private home a day's journey north of Kabul. They squeezed into a sliver of shade against a mud wall, the only refuge from the intense sun on a summer day when the temperature reached 120 degrees. Across the courtyard, inside a canvas lean-to, a doctor vaccinated infants atop a dusty plastic cooler.

HOW SHIT IRAQ HAPPENED

In the beginning there was a Plan.

And then came the Assumptions.

And the Assumptions were without form, but a cause of consultants.

And the plan was without substance.

And darkness was on the face of the Workers CIA agents.

And they spoke among themselves, saying, "It is a crock of shit, and it stinks."

And the Workers CIA agents went unto their Supervisors handlers and said, "It is a pile of dung, and none may abide the odor thereof."

And the Supervisors handlers went unto their Managers White House liasons, saying, "It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none can abide by it."

And the Managers White House liasons went unto their Directors Cabinet-level official (A totally useless form of office clutter, paid more than the Managers White House liasons) saying, "It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength."

And the Directors Cabinet-level officials spoke among themselves, saying one to another, "It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong."

And the Directors Cabinet-levels official went unto the Vice Presidents, saying unto them, "It promotes growth, and it is very powerful."

And the Vice Presidents went unto President saying unto him, "This new Plan will actively promote growth and Vigor of this company nation, with powerful effects." (They were all wearing hip high boots)

And the President looked upon the Plan and saw it was good.

And the Plan became Policy.

And this is how shit Iraq happened.

You gotta wish these boys well in their endeavors. It would be good for both parties to have at least the appearance of sanity.

Which is actually a little unfair. 

I'm only going to say this once, and if you tell anyone I said it I'll deny it...Bush, Cheney, et al are neither crazy, stupid nor particularly evil or venal. What they are, is middle managers. And what they've done is demonstrate that management school techniques are a singularly poor model for governance. See the next post...meanwhile, some politics for ya.

In the Senate, a Chorus of Three Defies the Line
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 - On a July evening in the Capitol, Vice President Dick Cheney summoned three Republican senators to his ornate office just off the Senate chamber. The Republicans - John W. Warner of Virginia, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina - were making trouble for the Bush administration, and Mr. Cheney let them know it.