— from TomDispatch

It was January 15, 2004, and TomDispatch had only been in existence for a year when Chalmers Johnson, author of the prophetic book Blowback (published in 2000 and a bestseller after the 9/11 attacks), did a piece for this site entitled “America’s Empire of Bases.” He wrote then: “Due to government secrecy, our citizens are often ignorant of the fact that our garrisons encircle the planet. This vast network of American bases on every continent except Antarctica actually constitutes a new form of empire -- an empire of bases with its own geography not likely to be taught in any high school geography class. Without grasping the dimensions of this globe-girdling Baseworld, one can't begin to understand the size and nature of our imperial aspirations or the degree to which a new kind of militarism is undermining our constitutional order.”

In a Sunday op-ed Arthur Laffer provides one of the funniest lines of the week, "Right-to-work laws provide individual workers with greater freedom to negotiate the terms of their employment." I almost spat out my coffee, thinking about what would happen to the worker who goes alone to management, demanding a raise and more vacation time. It's like you or me asking the cable company to show up at 10:30 sharp, and to take those added "fees" off my bill right now!

Arther Laffer, in an op-ed today titled in the paper (but not online), State's fix: Cut tax rate, enact right-to-work law, gives us the old "make us more business-friendly" argument. Apparently if we become more like China -- China is very "business-friendly" -- and give business owners everything they want, the businesses will move to put-name-of-state-here. (Except, WE won't benefit because the environment will suffer, we won't have a say, and a few at the top end up with everything.)

— originally published on WhoWhatWhy

There’s an underlying problem with reporting about Syria: The media continue to treat as human rights violations what is actually authority clamping down on people it considers, rightfully or not, revolutionaries or terrorists.

You might disagree with that government. You might find that government repressive, even odious, and want those involved in the uprising to succeed. But to call yourself reasonably objective you would have to admit that all governments respond with force when their survival is threatened. And, because they have the army and its might, they use it. It’s nasty, and a lot of people die.

Are weaponized drone aircraft more moral than the more traditional killing machines used in warfare? In an opinion published in Sunday’s New York Times, the paper’s national security reporter, Scott Shane, argues that they are.

But his argument is as incredibly flawed and as narrow as his job title (more on that a little further down).

Briefly put, Shane argues that based on what he says is a range of data claiming that civilian deaths from US drone strikes in Pakistan fall somewhere between 4% and 20% of those killed, drones are less lethal to civilians than ground attacks, rocket attacks, artillery attacks or air strikes by piloted aircraft. He notes that the Pakistani military’s attacks on militants in the western tribal areas have had a civilian kill ratio of 46%, similar to the 41% civilian death rate for Israeli military attacks on militants in Gaza and the West Bank. He also says that civilian death rates in wars over the last two decades have ranged from 33% to 80%.

Cross posted from Frederick Leatherman Law Blog.

Amy L. Siewert is a Crime Laboratory Analyst employed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Crime Laboratory. She examined TM's Fruit of the Loom dark gray hooded sweatshirt (Exhibit ME 12) and the light gray Nike sweatshirt (Exhibit ME 8) that he was wearing underneath the hoodie when GZ shot and killed him

In her report dated March 22, 2012, she concluded:

The sweatshirts each display a hole located in the upper chest area. The areas around these holes were microscopically examined and chemically processed for the presence of gunshot residues. Both holes displayed residues and physical effects consistent with a contact shot.

— from MSNBC

Class--not the poise and manners kind, but the Karl Marx variety--has become a defining factor in the 2012 presidential campaign.

Given the dismal state of the economy, with its unprecedented mix of sky-high long-term unemployment, it isn't surprising that the have-nots--who now have even less than they used to--are resentful of the getting-more-all-the-times. Still, it's a noteworthy development for the class divide to emerge so markedly in the United States, where two-thirds of citizens identify themselves as members of the middle-class or upper middle-class.

This class war 2012 edition is playing out now in the debate regarding renewing George W. Bush's tax cuts, which mostly benefited the wealthiest income earners. Republicans want to extend them all for at least another year. If President Obama gets his way, only the first $250,000 of income would qualify for a tax break.

Self-styled “independent fact-checkers” at the Annenberg Center and the neoconservative-dominated Washington Post have positioned themselves as ardent defenders of Mitt Romney’s claims that his Bain Capital tenure ended in 1999 despite questions raised by contradictory information submitted by Romney himself.

Indeed, the behavior of these “fact-checkers” is rapidly becoming the journalism scandal of Campaign 2012 as the likes of Brooks Jackson at Annenberg’s FactCheck.org and the Post’s Glenn Kessler act more as querulous lawyers protecting Romney than as journalists seeking the actual facts surrounding Romney’s curious business narrative.

Much as the Post’s Ceci Connolly and the New York Times’ Katharine Seeyle engaged in aggressive – and dishonest – journalism to portray Vice President Al Gore as a serial liar during Campaign 2000, Jackson and Kessler are performing a similar role in portraying President Barack Obama and his campaign officials as liars now.

This weekend marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Woody Guthrie, one of America’s most important and most radical songwriters. Best known for his song “This Land Is Your Land,” Guthrie wrote hundreds of tunes that combined his leftist politics and his impish sense of humor. “Left wing, chicken wing — it don’t make no difference to me,” he said.

Born in the small town of Okemah, Okla., on July 14, 1912, Guthrie was named for Woodrow Wilson, the Democrat who was elected president in the hotly contested election of that year. Though his father was active in Democratic Party politics, Guthrie held both major parties in contempt, writing in one of his songs, “If you’re a Republican or a Democrat or a white hood Ku Klux Klan, no use to ring my doorbell, ‘cause I’ll never be your man.”

On Friday Mitt Romney was asked whether American Olympic athletes should wear Made in America uniforms, or whether American Olympic athletes should wear Made in China uniforms. Romney's answer: No comment.

I agree with Harry Reid, who spoke for so many Americans when he said we set should fire to Made in China American Olympic uniforms, start over, and find great uniforms for great American athletes that are Made in the great U.S. of A.

Remarks delivered at Peacestock 2012

I want to thank Bill Habedank for inviting me here and everyone who's been involved in setting up this wonderful event, which ought to be replicated all over this country. Almost our entire population claims to favor peace. At least three quarters of us favor getting the U.S. military out of Afghanistan and ending that particular war, which by the way isn't ending. When carefully surveyed and shown what the federal budget is, a large majority of U.S. residents favors cutting huge amounts of money out of the military and putting it to better use.

NEW YORK – Most people don’t know, or have forgotten the horrors of the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.

Not a leading New York Rabbi, Arthur Schneier. Last week, he was the sole invited speaker as 520 newly discovered or identified bodies of Muslim victims were buried at Sarajevo’s cemetery.

Rabbi Schneier rightly termed the massacres of Muslims in Bosnia by Serb soldiers and paramilitary thugs as “genocide.” Jews know the smell of genocide.

During the mid 1990’s, the world turned its back on the massacres of Muslims in Bosnia. The UN would not call it genocide because that would have demanded military intervention. Most shamefully, the Muslim world also closed its eyes as up to 160,000 Bosnian Muslims were slaughtered, starved and tortured in Serb-run concentration camps. At least 10,000 Muslim girls and women were gang raped, some in special rape camps.

Opening Statements in My Cousin Vinny

Cross posted from Frederick Leatherman Law Blog.

It's Saturday Night

A respected criminal lawyer was delivering his summation to the jury in a missing body homicide case.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury," he said.

"In exactly 10 seconds when the clock over the door in the back of the courtroom strike 12, the alleged victim in this case will open that door and walk into this courtroom alive and well."

He counted down, "10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-0"

Proverbs 6:6 HNV
Hebrew Names Version
Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise; Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.

slug·gard/ˈsləgərd/
Noun:
A lazy, sluggish person.
Synonyms:
idler - lazybones - slacker - loafer - slug

For folks who do not know us, we self-describe as poor but not miserable. Like many others in America's ninety-nine percent, we cope with ongoing issues associated with an economy in decline. We consider ourselves fortunate to have our health. Mason received his Medicare card today. I thought that meant that he has health care now, but there is no coverage for medication, so, you know. I suppose if he gets his head chopped off, he can go to the hospital. But whatever. We are happy to have that, at least.

Crossposted with Axis of Logic

The absurdity of the world today is so blinding that we can barely see through the fog to discern what went so wrong.

Plans had been spun for years in the dark underground caves by the enemies of man. The Neoconservatives had it all planned, but one factor was missing.

Propaganda had already been working its insidious misinformation. The mass media were already more than willing to play the game of Big Money. Americans were thoroughly indoctrinated to toe the line of Big Power. Respect for power and blind obedience were the result of the U.S. educational system. “I pledge obedience to the flag of the United States of America …” Millions and millions of yes-men had been molded out of the clay of propaganda and history books.

Returning to Oakland after a long absence, Gertrude Stein famously remarked, "there is no there there." During the first week of July, conservatives made a similar discovery about Mitt Romney: he's an empty suit. While Romney blames President Obama for America's economic malaise, the Republican presidential candidate doesn't understand what caused the recession and, therefore, has no recovery plan.

On July 5 the Wall Street Journal observed,

"The Romney campaign thinks it can play it safe and coast to the White House by saying the economy stinks and it's Mr. Obama's fault. We're on its email list and the main daily message from the campaign is that 'Obama isn't working.' Thanks, guys, but Americans already know that. What they want to hear from the challenger is some understanding of why the President's policies aren't working and how Mr. Romney's policies will do better."

— from Truthout

The Freeh report makes clear that there was a concerted attempt to cover-up the acts of a serial predator, Jerry Sandusky, while willfully disregarding the welfare of the children he abused. Given the reporting of the last year, much of this is not news, though the report makes clear the nature and depth of the cover-up, while providing some important new details. While the Freeh report reveals that the cover-up at the top of the Penn State administration "was an active agreement to conceal," it raises further questions about how the justice system works in this country when it comes to prosecuting the rich and powerful who sink more and more into a bottomless pit of corruption and moral irresponsibility. At his press conference, Louis J. Freeh, when asked if criminal charges should be brought against a number of people, including former President Spanier, replied that "it's up to others to decide whether that's criminal." While Freeh's reply suggest he is acting cautiously given that some of the people who hired him may be indicted, he unknowingly touches on another related and important issue. That is, justice in America works primarily for the rich and powerful and against the poor and marginalized. And that Freeh's response or equivocation reveals what is well known - the rich and powerful rarely get prosecuted for their crimes or what The Economist has called "the rotten heart of finance." Just ask the CEOs who run Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, GlaxoSmithKline, and so it goes.

Life is overflowing with metaphorical material. Maneuvering through reality is a constant dialogue and negotiation between what’s inside our heads and what’s going on outside in the chaotic flow of what is. We understand what's outside by comparing it with what's inside. This is true whether or not the average anti-intellectual Joe Sixpack or Joe the Plumber recognizes it or not. In fact, those who don't understand this process are the ones most swayed by metaphor and symbol because they don’t see it working on them.

This dialogue between inside and outside is what it means to be human. It’s also how power is parsed out in all cultures, especially ours. And in America, football is a big player in the process.

The U.S. Olympic team's uniforms were made in China? This might be a WTF moment for the country, over the practice of sending our jobs, factories, industries and economy to China for the super-enrichment of a few. What next, a President made in China?

Made In China

ABC News discovered that the US Olympic Committee is "partnered with" American designer Ralph Lauren for the uniforms. But ABC looked at the labels and found that every single item was made in China or elsewhere, not in the United States.

[click image to enlarge]

Authorities say a West Virginia man tortured and enslaved his wife for much of the past decade, forcing her to endure two pregnancies and deliveries in shackles. Of course, torture is only against the law if you do it on a freelance basis, not as an official of the government.

In 1992, the protectors of Ronald Reagan’s legacy and George H.W. Bush’s presidency were in a bind. They had gained the upper hand in shutting down an investigation into allegations that Reagan and Bush had gone behind President Jimmy Carter’s back in 1980 to undermine his negotiations to free 52 Americans held by Iranian radicals, but then one of their crucial alibis collapsed.

In a stranger-than-fiction moment, these protectors turned to the exclusive Bohemian Grove – the target of a new round of Occupy protests this weekend – as a location for cobbling together a replacement alibi, thus sparing the Establishment the unpleasantness of a thorough investigation into what had the appearance of “treason” by the widely admired Reagan and Bush Sr.

Official Washington had thought questions about the so-called “October Surprise” of 1980 had been put to rest in November 1991 when the neoconservative New Republic and the pro-Establishment Newsweek splashed debunking articles on their covers.

Today, July 14, 2012 marks 100 years since the birth of Woody Guthrie. Lots have been written about him and his life, so I won't attempt to repeat that here.

I am particularly interested in Guthrie's song "This Land is Your Land" which he wrote as a response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." Guthrie, an activist, found Berlin's song vapid and unrealistic.

Over the years the song has been recorded many times, by Guthrie himself, by his son Arlo to whom it was dedicated, and countless others. There are several verses which some have included in their recordings, but they vary in which verses are selected.

One of the best tributes I have found to celebrate this song and Woody Guthrie was at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. People will recognize Bruce Springsteen. Another person to observe is Pete Seeger, a long-time folk singer who was just about to celebrate his 90th birthday. He knew Woody Guthrie personally.

I am aiming no insult here at the Chinese people themselves: most of us try to survive whatever government we have. But the government and the type of manufacturing they allow: especially prison labor?

Yes, China, you suck.

I'm on tour and have to sleep on an air mattress. It's an old man back thing combined with portability. I used to sleep on air mattresses all the time, now I have Tempur Pedic at home but use air elsewhere. I have been using air mattresses since I was a kid: no problem... until a few years ago.

This is only one of the many products coming pretty much exclusively out of China that's a fine example of how "free," unregulated, worldwide trade doesn't work.

UPDATE: The defense has filed a Motion to Disqualify Judge Lester. Read it here. H/t to commenter Sharona Baby at my site.

Cross posted from Frederick Leatherman Law Blog.

Both sides will be attempting to prove that their person is screaming for help because that is the central issue in the case, Zimmerman and his dad will say it's him. TM's parents and his cousin will say it's TM. I would not be surprised if his girlfriend also identifies him as the person screaming.

Unclear at this point if audio experts can conclusively identify the source.

Two audiologists using different methodologies while working independently of each other claim they have excluded GZ as the source of the scream to a reasonable scientific certainty. They compared a recording of his speaking voice during his conversation with the dispatcher to the background scream on the recording of a neighbor's 911 call.

I am ambivalent about politics of late. Somewhere between 2005, when I had started up my blog, and was very passionate about the slow take-over of our democracy by the “right wingers,” and today, where seven years of outright lying, a lackadaisical news media, and a misdirected and ill-informed public, I’ve given up. Literally. With the promises made by a presidential candidate in 2008, who won (in my mind) with overwhelming support, and the follow-up of consistent failure to keep those campaign promises, coupled with a very real embrace by said president of certain ideologies that are antiethcal to the very nature of our democracy (i.e., renditions, killing American citizens abroad without warrants, trials, and the like, deporting more people out of this country than Bush ever did, failure to properly and timely embrace the GLBT issues that he ran on, etc., and not to mention the very same reliance on the banking industry that his opponents also embrace) have molded me into a non-believer in today’s version of our democracy.

Chalkupy came to Berkeley this week to take a stand in the sit-lie debate.

Early in the week, a popular medical pot dispensary closed in San Francisco and caused a flare-up of the baffled pundit syndrome. Skeptics are asking if President Obama is overlooking a link to the young voters who helped him win in 2008 and perplexed commentators are left scratching their heads. Why would he do something that seems to spurn the attitude of a large portion of his political base? Could the well paid experts be overlooking an obvious answer in much the same way folks couldn’t find the purloined letter? Is there a hypothetical explanation for Obama’s curious failure to let pot dispensaries function without harassment?