Liberty & Justice, Digby-style

Digby on the Prop 8 decision and liberty & justice. Suitable for framing.

GP Read More......

The disgrace that has become the Paris metro

I think when you live in a place, even for just a year, and especially as young person, you always associate it with "home," even decades later. For me, Paris will always be home. I came here at the age of 19 to spend a year learning French. I didn't really speak a lick of French before coming here, yet somehow my parents let me go anyway (the older I get, the less I understand their decision). So when I see things like the poor state of the Parisian Metro, it upsets me on a personal level.

I just posted on my Facebook page a photo I shot the other day of my Metro train, line 4, coming into Montparnasse station, just around the corner from Chris and Joelle's (you can see the photo above). As a foreigner, coming to Paris for the first time in 1983, seeing the Metro was like visiting transportation Disneyland. It was a vision of the future, and a first lesson in the sometimes-fallibility of "We're number one!" We had nothing like this in the states, and still don't to this day.

Today, however, the Paris metro is less a vision of the future, and more a disgusting reflection of New York City at its worst.

There is graffiti everywhere - and I mean, everywhere. On the train windows, the train walls, the outsides of the trains, even the tunnel walls between stations. And it's not the "pretty" graffiti they used to get in New York, as if that would be some kind of consolation. The graffiti "artists" are using some kind of acid to etch the walls and windows, so it's just a big scrawling mess, like someone took a screw driver and scratched everything, ten times over.

And the worst part, I come here every year to house sit for Chris and his wife while they're gone on vacation, and it's been this way for years. Either no one is doing anything about it, or what they're doing clearly isn't working. In NYC, they finally put a stop to the graffiti by cleaning it up immediately, every single time it happened - eventually the graffiti artists simply gave up. Here it seems as though the government, and the public utility that runs the Metro, has given up.

It really is disgusting. I can't believe there isn't more public outrage about it. Or maybe the public has given up too. Read More......

Early puberty for girls raises health concerns

I think it's the food; we may well be poisoning ourselves. Liz Szabo at USA Today (my sad emphasis):

About 15% of 1,239 girls studied showed the beginnings of breast development at age 7, according to an article in today's Pediatrics. One in 10 white girls, twice as many as in a 1997 study, showed breast growth by that age, as did 23% of black girls and 15% of Hispanic girls. ...

The new study doesn't explain why girls are developing earlier, but it did find heavier girls with a higher body-mass index were more likely than others to begin puberty early, says pediatrician Frank Biro, director of adolescent medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

A third of children are now overweight, and the early puberty trend could be related to the obesity epidemic, says Marcia Herman-Giddens of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. A growing number of researchers also are concerned about hormone-disrupting chemicals in the environment. Animal studies suggest that many environmental toxins can affect the age of puberty, although scientists aren't yet sure exactly how they affect people.

Not to mention hormone-disrupting chemicals in the food.

This is sad. A trip to the airport (a good place to see your fellows in the aggregate) pretty much tells the tale. I don't think the number of people sporting morbid beach ball tummies is a morals problem. Eating "morality" hasn't changed in 50 years; we've kind of let nature take its course the whole time. But the food sure is different.

GP Read More......

Jet Blue employee arrested for his, um, creative exit off the plane

Never mess with a queen after a bad day at the office. (Just guessing.) Read More......

Christopher Hitchens on undergoing chemotherapy

I remember seeing Hitchens, for the first time, back in the early 80s when I was doing my undergrad at the University of Illinois. I swear it must have been him. Young brilliant English guy, talking about Cyprus. Zoom ahead thirty years to the neighbor in DC whom I'd see occasionally entering or leaving his apartment just down the block from my old place. Weirdly small world.

Hitchens in Vanity Fair:

It’s quite something, this chemo-poison. It has caused me to lose about 14 pounds, though without making me feel any lighter. It has cleared up a vicious rash on my shins that no doctor could ever name, let alone cure. (Some venom, to get rid of those furious red dots without a struggle.) Let it please be this mean and ruthless with the alien and its spreading dead-zone colonies. But as against that, the death-dealing stuff and life-preserving stuff have also made me strangely neuter. I was fairly reconciled to the loss of my hair, which began to come out in the shower in the first two weeks of treatment, and which I saved in a plastic bag so that it could help fill a floating dam in the Gulf of Mexico. But I wasn’t quite prepared for the way that my razorblade would suddenly go slipping pointlessly down my face, meeting no stubble. Or for the way that my newly smooth upper lip would begin to look as if it had undergone electrolysis, causing me to look a bit too much like somebody’s maiden auntie. (The chest hair that was once the toast of two continents hasn’t yet wilted, but so much of it was shaved off for various hospital incisions that it’s a rather patchy affair.) I feel upsettingly de-natured. If Penélope Cruz were one of my nurses, I wouldn’t even notice. In the war against Thanatos, if we must term it a war, the immediate loss of Eros is a huge initial sacrifice.

Read More......

Devolving America — the Reagan Revolution

Paul Krugman, "America Goes Dark" (my emphasis):

The lights are going out all over America — literally. Colorado Springs has made headlines with its desperate attempt to save money by turning off a third of its streetlights, but similar things are either happening or being contemplated across the nation, from Philadelphia to Fresno.

Meanwhile, a country that once amazed the world with its visionary investments in transportation, from the Erie Canal to the Interstate Highway System, is now in the process of unpaving itself: in a number of states, local governments are breaking up roads they can no longer afford to maintain, and returning them to gravel.

And a nation that once prized education — that was among the first to provide basic schooling to all its children — is now cutting back. Teachers are being laid off; programs are being canceled; in Hawaii, the school year itself is being drastically shortened. And all signs point to even more cuts ahead.

We’re told that we have no choice, that basic government functions . . . are no longer affordable.

This is the Reagan Revolution. I hate to be blunt, but anyone who voted twice for Reagan voted for this — the devolution of America.

It was always an ugly trade — Lee Atwater and his ilk shouting code at angry America, blissfully stoned on Dirty Harry and Death Wish fantasies. And America, tubed out on Judge Hardass, awash in happy congratulatory dreams, thinking itself bullet-proof (it still does), thinking it would never find itself cutting down the last tree on the island.

Those trees are being cut as we watch . . . and commandeered as escape pods by the only people with means to escape, the real beneficiaries of the Reagan Revolution. (I'm looking at you, Bob Rubin. You've got ilk too.)

The Professor again:

So the end result of the long campaign against government is that we’ve taken a disastrously wrong turn. America is now on the unlit, unpaved road to nowhere.

I wish I had something more positive to say this morning. We've written about this before, so it shouldn't be news.

Oh, and this is not the Professor's most depressing column in the last few weeks. That honor belongs to this one: "Who Cooked the Planet?".

Team Buddy Can You Spare Some Change?, you were put there to stop this stuff. Time to start stopping this stuff. It matters.

GP Read More......

Why this pastor is burning Qurans on 9/11

Because he's an evangelical redneck? From Mike Signorile:

Pastor Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Center first gained notoriety when he held "No Homo Mayor" protests (and had another one last week) in Gainesville, FL, batting against the election of Craig Lowe who became that city's first openly gay mayor this year.

Now he has announced "International Burn a Qu'ran Day" in which he and his followers will be burning the holy book of Islam on the ninth anniversary of 9/11. I brought him on the show on Friday to discuss about Islam, Christianity and homosexuality. Watch as he gets tripped up about the Old Testament.

Oh this is good, Signorile interviews the guy, and the guy explains that he's burning Qurans because he "want to send a message to peaceful Moslems to stay peaceful." Seriously.
Read More......

Rand Paul spokesman refusing to deny that Paul tied up woman and tried to force her to smoke pot while in college

Tying up women, kidnaping them, and forcing them to do illegal drugs isn't a Kentucky value. And the problem is, Rand Paul's campaign team keeps refusing to simply deny the story, as Ben Smith dutifully notes. Read More......

Two more nominations quietly die — Goodwin Liu and Edward Chen

Over at FireDogLake, bmaz writes with Marcy Wheeler on the Emptywheel part of the site. He recently had a piece decrying Obama and Team Change's "betrayal" of liberal nominees like Dawn Johnsen (who had the 60 votes she needed), and goes on to consider the pending case of Elizabeth Warren. It's a good read for that element alone.

But I'd like to point to another aspect of his piece, one in which he has personal knowledge and experience — judicial nominations for the 9th Circuit Court (my emphasis throughout):

Most distressing to me, because I practice law in the 9th Circuit, is the complete abandonment of two critical liberal judicial nominees, Goodwin Liu and Edward Chen; you may not be aware of because their nominations were tanked in the quiet of the night before those oh so hard working and diligent souls in the United States Senate jetted out of town for a 37 day vacation. Because Senate Rule XXXI specifies that all nominations not voted on and not held over by unanimous consent are extinguished and returned to the White House, the Liu and Chen nominations are toast.

Some of the still starry eyed Obama true believers who care about Liu and Chen (and both are incredibly excellent and worthy nominees) probably still think Obama will renominate them (and there is mention of that by, of course, an anonymous “White House official”). But even if he did, why in the world would anybody believe it to be anything other than a ruse to get their support leading up to the fall election? Obama renominated Dawn Johnsen and then hung her out to dry twisting in the wind until she finally ended the charade. It was a charade to sucker progressives, and there is no reason to believe he will not do it again. There is a track record with this White House, and it is not a good one; in fact, it is downright pathetic.

This matters for several reasons. One is that the current judiciary is overwhelmingly Republican-appointed and conservative (including Movement-Conservative):

Over the last three decades, Republicans have put the appointment of conservative judges at the top of their agenda. And controlling the White House 20 of the last 30 years has allowed them to carry out their plan. By the time George W. Bush left office, 60.2 percent of the judges, including two-thirds of the Supreme Court, had been appointed by Republican presidents. The younger Bush appointed nearly 40 percent of all federal judges.

Yet Obama has been cautious to the point of weird about reversing this trend. While news stories on this subject headline his lack of judicial confirmations, stories like this one also contain tales of his caution; Bloomberg:

“A lot of groups are still waiting for this president to nominate someone who will really reshape the bench,” said Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee on Civil Rights in Washington. The group supports expanding legal protection for blacks and other minorities.

The 13 appeals courts throughout the U.S. are particularly influential. They have the final say in thousands of cases, while the Supreme Court decides about 80 cases a year. Appellate courts ruled on or dismissed 59,600 cases in the year ending March 31, 2009, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts in Washington.

Obama has submitted to the Senate 63 trial court nominations and 22 for the appeals courts. At the same point in his first term, George W. Bush had nominated 83 trial judges and 32 for the appeals courts, according to Russell Wheeler, a scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

The story above also mentions Goodwin Liu, calling his nomination "controversial." That's Bloomberg editorializing — it's Repub-speak for "could be effective" and "let's scare him out of it."

Here's bmaz on Goodman Liu — it's one heck of an endorsement:

If you do not know about Goodwin Liu, you should. Liu is quite arguably the brightest and most accomplished young legal liberal star in the universe. He is the future of any liberal hope on the Supreme Court; like Antonin Scalia or John Roberts on the right, Liu is the future legal heavyweight for the liberal future. At only 39 years of age, Liu’s resume and record of accomplishment, service and involvement in the law makes Elena Kagan look like a malnourished piker. He is worth fighting for tooth and nail (and so is Ed Chen for that matter). Except Barack Obama did not lift a finger; didn’t ever expend any of his precious political capital in furtherance of the nomination and didn’t even utter a peep of protest as Harry Reid and the Senate let him die in the night as they were fleeing town. But that is the hallmark of the Obama Presidency in relation to liberals and/or progressives; they just don’t give a damn and won’t lift a finger (but they will expect the votes whenever elections come around).

Sad on so many levels. And dangerous. Lifetime judicial appointments are correctly perceived by Movement Conservatives as their greatest presidential prize — along with control of the federal purse (yep, I said "control"), ripe for easy pilfering.

And what does Team Hope do to mitigate this? That would be Nothing. I'll give bmaz the last, frustrated word:

Maybe progressives ought to be considering someone like Elizabeth Warren for a much higher office than head of CFPB; or they can continue to be treated as “f**cking ret*rds” by the current denizens of the White House.

This isn't the first time I've heard her name mentioned this way.

Not that I'm advocating — but Team Please Keep Us In Office, the frustration is growing like a fire; it's three months till the next election; and we could both see sunset before anything that looks like noon.

GP Read More......

Mosques meeting opposition across the country

Wonder what the ADL and the Weisenthanl Center have to say about this?

At one time, neighbors who did not want mosques in their backyards said their concerns were over traffic, parking and noise — the same reasons they might object to a church or a synagogue. But now the gloves are off.

In all of the recent conflicts, opponents have said their problem is Islam itself. They quote passages from the Koran and argue that even the most Americanized Muslim secretly wants to replace the Constitution with Islamic Shariah law.

These local skirmishes make clear that there is now widespread debate about whether the best way to uphold America’s democratic values is to allow Muslims the same religious freedom enjoyed by other Americans, or to pull away the welcome mat from a faith seen as a singular threat.

Read More......

Gingrich trying to come clean on the whole three wives, adultery thing

Remember, in Gingrich-land marriage is the sacred union of one man and three women.

But I'm sure it was all a youthful indiscretion in his 50s. Just because he lied and cheated while holding a public trust then in no way suggests that he'd lie and cheat while holding a public trust now.

More from Newt Gingrich on the sanctity of marriages. Read More......

MO GOPer Blunt now claims he opposed 2008 bailout. He helped get it passed and voted for it TWICE.

The first line of this AP analysis of Congressman and Missouri's GOP Senate candidate Roy Blunt's attempt to hide his support for the 2008 bailout:

Before he was against it, U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt was for a 2008 bill authorizing up to $700 billion to shore up banks and other troubled financial institutions.

In fact, Blunt helped negotiate its details and - as House Republican whip - helped round up enough votes to ensure its passage.

Now a candidate for U.S. Senate, Blunt is carefully parsing his past support for the unpopular bank bailout. Blunt's Senate campaign last month accused his Democratic opponent, Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, of "falsely asserting that Roy Blunt supported a $700 billion bailout package."

"Carefully parsing." That's such a polite way of saying that Blunt isn't being honest with the voters of Missouri.

But, Blunt's been in DC so long -- and become such a well-known A-list DC party animal -- that he must think the people of Missouri are stupid. First, he ran an biographical t.v. ad that ignored the key fact that he's been a member of Congress for 14 years, including a stint in GOP House leadership. Lately, he's been saying that he never supported the bailout when, in fact, he did. There are even two recorded roll call votes (here as HR 3997 and here) showing his YEA votes.

No wonder the Missouri teabaggers wanted everyone to know they didn't endorse him.

Blunt's opponent is Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan. She's running a "Stop the Bull" campaign against Blunt (and as a cattle farmer, Robin knows bull when she sees it.) Her website is here and AMERICAblog's ActBlue page for Carnahan is here.

This race is going to be close right to the end. Missouri's like that. It's close as the Pollster.com tracker shows. Read More......

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The President has a busy day. First, he's getting a visit from the Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints. Then, he's flying to Austin, Texas where he's giving a speech at UT on the economy and higher education. Obama will also be appearing at DNC fundraiser in Austin and a DSCC fundraiser in Dallas.

The House comes back to DC tomorrow to vote on passage of the legislation that will, among things, provide aid to states to fund teachers.

Yesterday, on "Face the Nation," Tony Perkins, the gay-obsessed leader of the Family Research Council debated the lawyer for the plaintiffs in the Prop. 8 case. If you haven't seen it, take a few minutes to watch. Boies destroyed Perkins, repeatedly stating that it's okay to lie on TV, but not on the witness stand. You'll recall that neither Perkins nor any of the other gay-bashers would take the stand -- under oath -- in the Prop. 8 trial. They spew what Boies called "junk science" -- and their lies doesn't stand up to a real examination. Boies was brilliant. Perkins and his ilk have been exposed as the liars they are.

Let's start.. Read More......