(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Ursula K. LeGuin, a sorely underappreciated sci-fi writer, wrote a short story in 1974 called The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. It’s in pdf, but take five minutes and read it.

Then follow me below the fold.

If you didn’t bother to read it, here’s the gist:

The Omelas live in the perfect Utopian society. The details don’t matter, but everybody is happy and rich and has no cares in the world. There’s only one catch.

Locked in an old closet somewhere is a child. At one time the child knew the joys of living among the Omelas. But one day, the people locked the child in an old closet. There the child lives, wallowing in her own feces. She is scared and alone. An old, crusty mop sits in the corner and the mop scares the child.

It looks about six, but actually is nearly ten. It is feeble-minded. Perhaps it was born defective or perhaps it has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect. It picks its nose and occasionally fumbles vaguely with its toes or genitals, as it sits haunched in the corner farthest from the bucket and the two mops. It is afraid of the mops. It finds them horrible. It shuts its eyes, but it knows the mops are still standing there; and the door is locked; and nobody will come.

But somebody does come eventually. Every now and then some people come to feed her a miserable meal and gawk at her. You see, the Omelas made a pact. They get their perfect Utopian society and the price is negligible. As long as some child suffers in the darkness with his/her terror, isolation, misery and pain the rest of the Omelas will prosper. Every member of the Omelas society must see the child at least once and some come back for their own reasons.

Ursula’s story ends with a powerful note that some of the Omelas decide to leave. It doesn’t matter where they go. They just leave, presumably because they can’t live with the idea that the most vulnerable of our society must suffer so that everyone else can be happy and carefree.

But there is a caveat to the story. Ursula leaves it unaddressed for a reason. If someone would rescue that poor, abused, frightened and lonely child, then then the whole damned thing falls apart. But nobody rescues the child. They either live with it or leave. We are left to assume that the Omelas won’t actually die from losing their Utopia. They would just have to rebuild a society that is not predicated on abusing one helpless child for the “greater good.”

And that is what is happening in America, folks.

The lilly-white (okay fine, pure white plus Alan West and Alan Keyes) right wing has this vision for a Utopian society. Sorry, lefties. There’s no room for you. You get to be the child in the mop closet.

Who are the pathetic, disease-ridden children who deserve to be locked in a closet?

Let’s take a look.

In Wisconsin, it was the public sector unions just tonight. In Gov. Scott Walker’s world, we killed the private sector unions and the final coup de grâce is killing the public sector unions. We will be prosperous only when the teachers, clerks, urban planners, et al work for minimum wage with no benefits. Notice there is no mention of Walker or the state legislature taking a pay cut. It’s not like he has to work out of a mop closet.

Remember the sub-prime mortgage “crisis”? The deal was that banksters would give you a mortgage you clearly could not afford and place a bet that you would default sooner or later. If you managed to keep up the payments, good for the bank. If you defaulted, good for the bank. Damned shame about the catering of the real estate market, though. Eventually, though, a scary mop closet looks like a reasonable alternative to that nice house in the ‘burbs.

Tomorrow we also have Rep. Peter King’s revival of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In case you haven’t heard, Rep. King intends to haul some Muslims in front of Congress and ask they why “all Muslims are terrorists.” This from a guy who loved the Irish Republican Army. (Disclosure: I sort of agreed with the IRA’s goals, but I detested their tactics of killing civilians.) Peter King is a symptom of a larger Xenophobia, though. The tighty-righties have this notion that morality comes only from their ancient texts and none other. They say fuck the Muslims and Hindus and Taoists and Wiccans and atheists and agnostics. They say suffer the Catholics and Jews and Mormons as long as they stay in their place. In short, pray in your mop closet; we got this.

Or we could just take a look at the tea party philosophy. Never mind that the entire thing is funded by corporate interests well beyond the Koch brothers. The whole movement is predicated on the idea of “I’ve got mine, jack, so fuck you.” In other words, screw that whole social safety net thing. If you fall on your face financially or do something silly like grow old then you need to just die already and let the rest of us enjoy our money. Throw those poor and old people in the mop closet, too.

And here in my beloved state of Pennsylvania, our (Republican) governor proposed a budget plan to cut just about everything except corporate taxes and law enforcement. We have an awesome state system of higher education with 14 schools (shout out to Mansfield University) owned by the state. Our tax payers generously fund these schools so that 120,000 students a year can get a good education. Most of that could go away. That is on top of deep cuts in public education for the Commonwealth’s 500 public school districts. But never fear. Gov. Tom Corbett wants vouchers!!!! That should do the trick. The rest of you: get in the mop closet.

Speaking of closets, let’s talk about LGBTQ folks. To the Far-right Republicans and their enablers in the media, you are at best an interesting cultural phenomena to be quickly crushed and at worst the reason the Western world will disintegrate into madness and chaos. Get back in you mop closet, fags and dykes, they say. Otherwise, this country is doomed I tell ya. DOOMED! (btw, fuck those guys.)

Or we could talk about the environment. There are a lot of corporate interests out there that would like to quash the environmental movement so that they can keep making money. They have gone as far as to use sock puppets on Wikipedia to make themselves look good. The reality is that climate change is real and could kill us all. But everyone from the Republican Party to the t-baggers to most of the media would like you to think climate change activists need a room at the mop closet motel or else the entire economy goes down the toilet.

Or we could talk about the the folks who want to smoke a joint to forget all of this. If the cops get you, welcome to the mop closet. If you fail a piss test for a job, welcome to the mop closet and fuck you, even if you have a prescription. If you drink yourself stupid, however, congratulations, Mr. Speaker of the House.

Finally, there is Bradley Manning. Here is a guy who is quite literally stripped naked and locked in a room for hours. Why? He exposed “secrets” that the State Department and CIA would prefer not see the light of day. Manning and Julian Assange may have their personal problems, but the information they are putting out there cannot be overlooked. But it is. We, as a society, would rather kill the messenger than grapple with the nasty reality that the message reveals. For that, we will stick them in the mop closet. (Note: if Assange is guilty of rape, he probably does belong in the mop closet, but only for that and not for leaking secrets.)

And that’s just a small sampling of the right wing’s efforts to keep us all in the mop closet. Every four years I hear the refrain. If X gets elected, I’m moving to Canada. Well then you are walking away from the Omelas. I also hear, I’m not voting this election because Obama did X. Great job walking away.

We don’t need to walk away from the Omelas. We need to pull the “children” out of the mop closet and treat them with the respect they deserve. If that means some delusional 1950s image of the country is destroyed, so be it. We cannot let the right wing lock certain people in a mop closet in order to validate their version of the American Utopia.

Don’t walk away from the Omelas. Destroy their utopia. Take care of the child in the mp closet. We can rebuild our society so that we all benefit and no one has to suffer in a mop closet. The good of the many does not outweigh the good of the one.

(8 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Those of you that read this irregular series know that I am from Hackett, Arkansas, just a mile of so from the Oklahoma border, and just about 10 miles south of the Arkansas River.  It was a redneck sort of place, and just zoom onto my previous posts to understand a bit about it.

I never write about living people except with their express permission, so this installment is about a long dead denizen of Hackett.  I never learnt what Dee’s real first name was; everyone just called him Dee.

He was a deputy sheriff just about forever.  This was in the mid 1960s to around 1980, give or take.  Here is what I remember about him.

Dee was the stereotypical southern deputy.  He sort of looked like the actor who played the CIA operative in the Bond films, except he was not quite (well, not nearly) as handsome as the actor and bigger around the waist.  He was around my age now when I became aware of him.

At the time, deputy sheriffs wore light tan uniforms, and had Barney Fife hats.  What impressed me most, as a child of around six or so, was the sidearm that he wore on a very wide belt.  Guessing today, I would believe that it was a Colt .38 calibre revolver with about a six inch barrel.  That was very impressive to a kid my age at the time.

Dee was a native, and his family still lives there.  I do not what one had to do to become a deputy at the time, but college or specialized training was NOT part of it!  We are talking the early 1960s, folks!  At the time, Hackett did not have its own police, so the primary law enforcement was left up to the Sebastian County Sheriff, a Mr. Fred Hayes as I recall.  That, like in many jurisdictions, was an elective position, but deputies were not elected, so they were likely to survive changes at the top.

I remember when I was VERY young that Gene and Katy’s (see the previous installment in this series) store had gotten burglarized, and my dad called the sheriff’s department.  This was long before 911, and to call Fort Smith from Hackett was actually an operator assisted long distance telephone call!  We are talking about 1964 or so.  By the time that Dee showed up, the burglars were long gone.

Dee came in and Dad told him what he saw, and he took the report.  That pistol still attracted my attention.

In the late 1960s to the very early 1970s Hackett became quite lawless.  We had people literally rustling cattle and serving the illegal hamburger in a cafe.  We had several other folks shooting out streetlights (the mercury vapor ones had just been installed, and the thugs HATED the better illumination).  One time, Billy Israel fell off of the roof of one the the buildings whilst Dee and crew were coming after him, and broke both arms in several places!  It was amusing to see that thug in two casts simultaneously, because he was a very bad man, with no redeeming qualities.  Though I do not know it for a fact, he is almost certainly deceased now, since he was around 40 then, and lived very hard.

Slowly, Hackett became more lawful, and all of the street fun disappeared.  I missed it, because I lived in a house with a balcony upon which I could sit, unobserved, and observe what was happening.  Most of the confrontation was about what they thought to be “attractive” women, but I never thought that they were.  They looked sort of harsh to me.  I preferred Jo Susan, but both of us were much younger, had better training, and never touched each other.  Hell, we were not even teenagers then.  But that is off point.

Dee, finally and with help from the State Police, ran out the outlaws and Hackett was once again serene.  Too, too serene!

I was a bit older when Dee took a very drunk teenager to jail.  The law was clear, so he should have taken him in, but Dee said something that still sticks with me.  It just happened that Dee nabbed him just outside of our yard in daylight, and the kid (I have no idea who he was) was vomiting.  My parents came out to see what the commotion was, and as Dee did the sheriff thing, knocking the kid to his back and otherwise abusing him, said, “He is goin’ to feel REAL good tomorrow!”  Bastard.

Let me leave you with this for just a minute, but ask you to think about the ultraconservative and combative attitude that he often exhibited.  This will become not only important, but extremely poignant and even bizarre later.  Please stay with me for a bit more.

His son, Louis, likely still living, but since I have nothing negative to say about him, here, I will mention him.  Louis was a big boy, likely around 21 or so, tall and not what anyone would call trim.  I remember when I was around 16 or so getting my Dad’s truck stuck in mud at the farm.  Regardless of how hard I rocked it, I just could not get it out of the mud.  I walked the mile or so to town, and found Louis.  He fired up his tractor and drove out to the farm, with me riding against the drive train and the fender.  (Those of you who know tractors will understand where I was standing).  Dad always kept a chain in the back of the truck, and Louis and I attached it, and he pulled me out in about ten seconds.  When I asked him what I owed him, he said, “Weeeel, if I git stuck, you come an’ hep me out.”  I never got that opportunity, but will take this one to thank him for helping me.

Louis liked to load his own shotgun shells, and liked to experiment with new, and heavy, loads.  One day he tried a new experiment, and the chamber of his shotgun could not contain the pressure.  It exploded, taking a significant part of his right face and jawbone with it.  He was in hospital for a long time, but survived.  He always carried a scar from it.  A cautionary tale:  READ THE LOADING BOOK before you try new things.  Louis was my friend, and I need to see if he is still with us.  Not likely before this is posted, but near the top of the list of things that I need to do.

Now back to his father, Dee.  Fred Hayes, mentioned before, busted a big pot farm around, as I remember, maybe 1975 or 1976.  It turned out to be the Great Ragweed, Ambrosia trifida, which grows in immense fields around Hackett, but only causes allergies.  It does have a very superficial resemblance to pot, in that the height of the plant is similar, the color is similar, and that the leaves are very vaguely similar.

Here are two pictures of a plant and its various leaves.  Next are pictures of Cannabis sativa.   You can see the similarities and differences.

These photographs show the general outline of the plant and the leaf structure.  Compare them with those of pot, next.

The next election cycle, Dee decided to try to become the elected sheriff, and his campaign slogan, I kid you not, was just this:

Dee knows pot.

He lost, but he was right.  Now, please come back to the suspension that I had asked you to hold.

Dee got hurt, I would say, in the very late 1970s or early 1980s.  He lost blood, and had to have a transfusion to save his life.  He was retired from law enforcement at the time, but lost a lot of blood.  In my little town, it was most likely a farming accident, but I was busy chasing women, and finding who I thought would be a lifetime mate at the time, so I do not remember exactly what his injury was. He was taken to hospital, taken care of, and received enough blood to make him well.

Those transfusions were laden with HIV.  Dee recovered quickly for having his missing blood replaced, and that lasted for several months.  Then the HIV virus took over his immune system, and at the time there was NO defense against it.  As a matter of fact, it was only beginning to be recognized as an infection.

Dee died, a very early victim of AIDS, just about before we knew what AIDS was.

Looking back, even his harsh treatment of the drunk kid might not have been that bad.  Louis told me years afterwords that Dee just took him home, hoping to instill the fear of God into the kid that it might be worse the next time.

So, do only big cities have trouble with HIV?  My Little Town lost someone who, even though of all of his faults, turned out to be a pretty good guy.  That was just as the infection was becoming recognized.

I always welcome comments about your little towns.  I have gotten some wonderful ones.  Please offer more.

Warmest regards,

Doc

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

I’m enraged.  Wisconsin’s union workers this evening were temporarily outflanked by a legislative maneuver of questionable legality.  And of despicably sleazy intent. The Senate decided that, as everyone in opposition to it has been saying for months, the union busting bill really wasn’t a fiscal measure, the previous pronouncements that it was be damned.  No, it wasn’t a fiscal measure.  It was a union busting measure.  And therefore, the bill didn’t need a quorum in the Senate.  It could pass the Wisconsin Senate with no democrats voting.  Or even appearing.  So there. This wonderfully disingenuous piece of legislative legerdemain has– let’s call it what it is–  temporarily screwed Wisconsin’s public unions by withdrawing their right to bargain collectively.

And now.  And now, amigo@s, comes the real test.  Will the unions and their supporters and the demonstrators and you and I all throw up our hands in defeat and despair and slink home?  Will we say in words or actions, “Oh, we lost, it’s over, let’s just forget about it and move on?”  Or will we stand up now and fight on (nonviolently) with ever renewed dedication to overturn this evil, unpopular, antidemocratic, antiunion measure?

I hope that hundreds of thousands of people show up in Madison tomorrow to demonstrate against Governor Walker and the Koch funded Teapublicans.  I hope an equal number will show up in Lansing.  And in Union Square, New York.  And in San Francisco.  And Chicago.  And in every town and city in America that recognizes the dignity of workers and their right to bargain collectively.  I hope the recall efforts will be redoubled.  I hope that the demonstrators inspire a nationwide high school strike tomorrow at 2 pm.  And I hope the demonstrators will invite farmers to show their support, to come to Madison, to ride their tractors to and surround the capitol.  And I hope that across Wisconsin and across America teachers and nurses and garbage collectors and firemen and bureaucrats and policemen will all link arms with other workers, students, progressives, anyone who supports the unions and sees that the withdrawal of public unions’ collective bargaining rights is a step back, a regression into the darkness of the Nineteenth Century.

Yes, I’m enraged.  But I’m also hopeful.  I’m hopeful that we, you and I, amig@s, will not let Walker and the Koch funded Teapublicans get away with this.  I’m hopeful that this is the beginning not of a demonstration, but of an actual, popular movement.  I hope that the movement will continue with increased strength and focus to preserve the rights of workers to organize and to bargain collectively.

Yes, I’m idealistic.  And maybe pretty unrealistic.  And not particularly practical.  That doesn’t matter.  I believe that what we are about to see is a real change.  Coming from an organic movement.  And that we will now begin in earnest to link arms and stand in Solidarity in the struggle for what I believe is the survival of the middle class.  Here’s John Lennon:

cross posted from The Dream Antilles  

The horror.

I’m here to kick your ass, and you know it, and everybody here knows it, and above all, you deserve it. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that this party is about to become a historical fact.

• ABC Family– Miss Congeniality, Two Weeks Notice (Sandra Bullock night)
• AMC– Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Exit Wounds
• Bravo– Top Chef (last week’s and new)
• Discovery– Desert Car Kings (premier)
• ESPN– Big East Tournament x 2
• ESPN2– College Hoopies, Northeast Conference Tournament: Robert Morris @ Long Island, Big Sky Tournament, Final
• Food– Throwdown (premier), Chopped (All Stars Part 1 repeat), Restaurant: Impossible
• FX– The Day After Tomorrow
• History– Underwater Universe x 2 (premiers)
• Lifetime– We’re Doooomed!  Doooomed I tells ya.
• Sci Fi– Face Off x 2 (premier + Instapeat)
• TBS– Are We There Yet? x 2 (premiers)
• Turner Classic– Lord Love a Duck, More Than a Secretary
• TNT– Bones marathon
• Travel– Man v. Food marathon (thank goodness)
• TV Land– Some Kind of Wonderful
• USA– NCIS marathon
• Vs.– Blackhawks @ Lightning
• VH1– ATL

I hate feeling ashamed. I hate where I’m from. I hate watching my friends get everything their hearts desire. I gave into that hatred and I turned on what I believed in. I didn’t have to. You didn’t.

Later-

We’re gonna bring this party up to a nice respectable level. Don’t worry, we’re not gonna hurt anyone. We’re not even gonna touch ’em. We’re just gonna make ’em cry a little, just by lookin’ at ’em.

• Turner Classic– This Could Be the Night, She’s Got Everything
• TV Land– Hot in Cleveland, Retired at 35 x 2 (this week’s)
• USA– Fairly Legal (this week’s)

Dave in repeats from 2/10.  Jon has Aaron Eckhart, Stephen David Brooks (David Broder being unresponsively dead and all).  Conan hosts Paul Rubens, Shane Mauss, and Edmund Morris.

Don’t go mistaking paradise for a pair of long legs.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

( – promoted by TheMomCat)

Regular Daily Features:

mishima takes us back to 1979 in Late Night Karaoke.

Gha!

Essays Featured Wednesday, March 9^th:

TheMomCat most kindly gives us a repeat performance of her Health & Fitness News

_{originally posted Saturday at The Stars Hollow Gazette}

Youffraita‘s serving Fastnacht in Wednesday Open Thoughts

fake consultant tells a simple little story of a multinational corporation and the local opposition in On Being A Titan, Part One, Or, See It, Say It, Sue It

PeekABoo, a celebration of Spring from Xanthe

join the conversation! come firefly-dreaming with me….

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 51 Top Stories.

1 Kadhafi says West after Libya’s oil as rebels pounded

by Antoine Lambroschini, AFP

1 hr 55 mins ago

AFP

2 Kadhafi defiant as troops pound rebels

by Antoine Lambroschini, AFP

Wed Mar 9, 11:14 am ET

3 Egypt government warns of ‘counter-revolution’

by Jailan Zayan, AFP

31 mins ago

4 Ten dead in Egypt religious clashes

by Mona Salem, AFP

Wed Mar 9, 8:08 am ET

5 Afghan civilian deaths hit new high

by Katherine Haddon, AFP

Wed Mar 9, 11:42 am ET

6 Bomb kills 37 at Pakistan funeral

by Lehaz Ali, AFP

Wed Mar 9, 7:59 am ET

7 Veteran US shuttle ends historic spaceflight career

AFP

26 mins ago

8 India on verge of W. Cup quarters, Kamran faces axe

by Dave James, AFP

Wed Mar 9, 11:41 am ET

9 More Ivory Coast bloodshed as Gbagbo snubs mediation

by Christophe Koffi, AFP

Tue Mar 8, 4:30 pm ET

10 Women march for better life on International Women’s Day

AFP

Tue Mar 8, 6:22 pm ET

11 Biden backs Russia’s modernisation drive

by Maria Antonova, AFP

Wed Mar 9, 12:37 pm ET

12 Toyota targets strong sales in emerging markets

by David Watkins, AFP

Wed Mar 9, 7:42 am ET

Reuters

13 Fierce fighting across Libya as government sends envoys

By Maria Golovnina and Michael Georgy, Reuters

52 mins ago

14 Fighter says rebels retake Zawiyah main square

By Mariam Karouny, Reuters

55 mins ago

15 White House defends Libya stance, debates options

By Ross Colvin and Andrew Quinn, Reuters

1 hr 11 mins ago

16 Libya rebels, government trade blame on oil blast

By Mohammed Abbas, Reuters

Wed Mar 9, 10:59 am ET

17 Obama and Cameron weigh no-fly zone for Libya

By Caren Bohan and Phil Stewart, Reuters

Tue Mar 8, 7:07 pm ET

18 Firms to stop dividends, repayments in Libya freeze

By Natsuko Waki, Reuters

Tue Mar 8, 3:58 pm ET

19 Americans see U.S. on wrong track: Reuters/Ipsos poll

By Steve Holland, Reuters

Wed Mar 9, 1:46 pm ET

20 Idaho passes Republican bill to curb union rights

By Mary Wisniewski, Reuters

Wed Mar 9, 8:03 am ET

21 Greed drove Rajaratnam’s network: prosecutor

By Grant McCool and Basil Katz, Reuters

1 hr 33 mins ago

22 House panel to examine Muslim radicalization

By Jeremy Pelofsky, Reuters

Wed Mar 9, 10:28 am ET

23 Toyota bets on emerging markets

By Chang-Ran Kim, Asia Autos Correspondent, Reuters

Wed Mar 9, 9:17 am ET

24 U.S. seeks surge success from lethal Afghan outpost

By Missy Ryan, Reuters

Wed Mar 9, 8:27 am ET

25 Shuttle Discovery prepares for last landing

By Irene Klotz, Reuters

Tue Mar 8, 3:18 pm ET

AP

26 Oil installations ablaze in Libya as battles rage

By PAUL SCHEMM and MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press

5 mins ago

27 White House not at ‘decision point’ on Libya

By BEN FELLER, AP White House Correspondent

51 mins ago

28 Fighting raises concerns about Libyan scientists

By DOUGLAS BIRCH, Associated Press

1 hr 4 mins ago

29 Chaos deepens as clashes in Egypt kill 13

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press

15 mins ago

30 NPR chief executive quits over hidden camera video

By BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press

53 mins ago

31 Senate rejects rival GOP, Democratic budgets

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press

23 mins ago

32 Shuttle Discovery ends flying career, museum next

By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer

56 mins ago

33 Illinois abolishes death penalty, clears death row

By CHRISTOPHER WILLS, Associated Press

43 mins ago

34 Union asked NFL for full financial data in 2009

By HOWARD FENDRICH, AP Pro Football Writer

26 mins ago

35 If NFL stops, ‘innocent bystanders’ to take hit

By JAIME ARON, AP Pro Football Writer

Wed Mar 9, 10:56 am ET

36 Preemie birth preventive spikes from $10 to $1,500

By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

1 hr 5 mins ago

Thank you again Barack Hussein Obama.  For nothing.

37 ‘Rainy day’ funds sit unused in handful of states

By MELINDA DESLATTE, Associated Press

2 hrs 50 mins ago

38 ‘Spider-Man’ to shut down for weeks? Producers mum

By JOCELYN NOVECK, AP National Writer

2 hrs 17 mins ago

39 Suicide bomber kills 36 at funeral in NW Pakistan

By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press

Wed Mar 9, 9:44 am ET

40 Biden in Moscow for 2 days of talks

By JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press

Wed Mar 9, 6:27 am ET

41 Vt. gov., back from Caribbean, defends secrecy

By JOHN CURRAN, Associated Press

8 mins ago

Another stupid, privileged asshole who thinks a D next to his name makes him a “man of the people.”  Just another jerk.

42 Philly cardinal asks faithful to pray for healing

By JOANN LOVIGLIO, Associated Press

12 mins ago

A church of perverts and pederasts.

43 House Republicans say federal workers are overpaid

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press

19 mins ago

44 GOP imposes $100 fines on Wis.’s AWOL Democrats

By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press

31 mins ago

45 Obama nominates Locke to be ambassador to China

By JULIE PACE, Associated Press

37 mins ago

46 Boys, men charged in sex assaults Texas girl, 11

By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press

35 mins ago

I’m sure they are all proud upstanding Texass ‘Murikans.

47 Auto industry guards against hacking

By KEN THOMAS, Associated Press

1 hr 23 mins ago

48 Erin Brockovich back in Hinkley testing water

By NOAKI SCHWARTZ, Associated Press

2 hrs 10 mins ago

49 Erin Brockovich back in Hinkley testing water

By NOAKI SCHWARTZ, Associated Press

2 mins ago

50 Covered bridge preservation program endangered

By JOAN LOWY, Associated Press

Wed Mar 9, 2:35 pm ET

51 Ford has another car with 40 mpg

By ANN M. JOB, For The Associated Press

Wed Mar 9, 10:49 am ET

And censors them.

A fierce advocate indeed-

“The House of Representatives is expected to soon vote on a funding proposal that contains drastic cuts to several federal agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board. The proposal would eliminate $50 million from this small administrative agency, or 18% of its total annual budget. Because the reduction would be squeezed into the final 7 months of the fiscal year, the cuts would be felt even more deeply – representing the equivalent of one-third of remaining 2011 funding.

Nearly all of the agency’s budget is spent on salaries and rents; there are no programs to eliminate or postpone. The only way to meet this extreme and immediate reduction would be to furlough all of the NLRB’s 1,665 employees for 55 workdays, or nearly three months, between now and the end of September. The great majority of these employees work far from Washington D.C., in 51 local offices, where every NLRB case begins. The economic impact of this cut would be felt by families and communities in 33 states.

If enacted, the House proposal could force the NLRB to curtail all agency operations, including investigating alleged illegal practices by private sector employers and unions, conducting workplace elections, and helping to settle election-related disputes. Regulation of a broad range of conduct, such as unlawful lockouts of workers, termination of union organizers, refusals to bargain with unions selected by workers, unilateral changes to contract provisions covering such things as health insurance and pensions, unlawful strikes, picket line violence, and secondary boycotts, would be stalled if this proposal were adopted.

NLRB: White House Muzzled Us In Budget Debate

Ryan Grimm, The Huffington Post

Posted: 03/ 9/11 11:08 AM

The White House demanded that the NLRB scrub the statement defending the agency from its website, an NLRB spokesperson told The Huffington Post.

…

The White House pushback against the NLRB would sound familiar to Wisconsin demonstrators. The Democratic National Committee’s Organizing for America, the group that is a remnant of Obama’s ’08 campaign operation, initially got strongly behind the pro-labor protests. But after the GOP criticized the White House for its involvement, an administration spokesman told The New York Times that “the White House had done nothing to encourage the demonstrations in Wisconsin,” as paraphrased by reporter Jackie Calmes.

Of course, this President is almost entirely absent from the Budget debate, except when it comes to throwing core Democratic Principles and Constituencies under the bus.

Obama Tries to Re-Engage on Budget with 9 Days Until Government Shutdown

By: David Dayen, Firedog Lake

Wednesday March 9, 2011 11:06 am

The President has been completely disengaged on the budget battle in Congress, preferring to let them battle it out while he jets around the country and says “win the future” a lot. And some members of Congress are sick of it. Now, part of this is Congress wanting to share the blame with the White House for whatever comes out. But the other part is a recognition that the caucus is rootless and without direction, and only a party leader can come in and impose that. The fact that Obama set Joe Biden to the task of working out a compromise, only to have Biden leave for Europe for a week, is testimony to the fact that there’s something wrong with this lack of engagement. When Joe Manchin, who I think got to the Senate three days ago, is calling you out for a failure of leadership, there’s a problem of engagement.

Why did we elect him again?  Oh, he claims to be a Democrat.

Well, he’s not.

And he’s not even doing his job, he’s just an AWOL deserter.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”

Robert Reich: Why the Democrats Should Never Have Started Paying Ransom to Avoid a Shutdown

It’s called ransom. That’s what Republicans are demanding from the White House and congressional Democrats for not pulling the plug on the government.

Problem is, when you pay ransom once, you’re almost begging to pay it again. And that’s exactly the pickle the Obama administration is finding itself in.

In order to avoid a shutdown last week and buy time until March 18, the White House agreed to more spending cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year than it originally put on the table. Now, in order to get past March 18, Republicans want even more. Democrats have offered to cut an additional $10.5 billion but Republicans want $61 billion. The White House is hinting it’s ready to compromise further.

Katrina vanden Heuvel: When Murdoch wins, citizens lose

We tend to measure the influence of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. in terms of the reach of Fox News or the circulation of the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal. But it is actually local television stations on which Murdoch has built his empire and increased his stranglehold on access to information.

He has done so, in large part, by taking advantage of a 1999 change in FCC rules that allowed a single company to own more than one television station in the same market. That arrangement, known as a duopoly, lets big conglomerates such as News Corp. buy up stations, reduce their staffs and consolidate newsrooms. Murdoch now has nine duopolies. According to Santa Clara University’s Allen Hammond, a staggering 109 duopolies were created between 2000 and 2006.

The problem isn’t just that control over the airwaves becomes concentrated; it’s that such consolidation often results in the gutting of local news coverage. Duopoly owners tend to duplicate their local coverage and reduce the amount of airtime dedicated to community news. The subsequent lack of coverage gives local governments a free pass to operate without any real media scrutiny.

Bob Herbert: Flailing After Muslims

It has often been the case in America that specific religions, races and ethnic groups have been singled out for discrimination, demonization, incarceration and worse. But there have always been people willing to stand up boldly and courageously against such injustice. Their efforts are needed again now.

Representative Peter King, a Republican from Long Island, appears to harbor a fierce unhappiness with the Muslim community in the United States. As the chairman of the powerful Homeland Security Committee, Congressman King has all the clout he needs to act on his displeasure. On Thursday, he plans to open the first of a series of committee hearings into the threat of homegrown Islamic terrorism and the bogus allegation that American Muslims have failed to cooperate with law enforcement efforts to foil terrorist plots.

Laura Flanders: Philanthro-Feudalism Is the Future!

China’s new economic plan is a relic of the past. It focuses on raising standards of living. How quaint!

When China’s leaders unveiled their latest five-year plan recently, they revealed that their focus is on lowering inequality, investing in railroads, highways and hospitals and expanding domestic demand through income subsidies. Fancy that!

Those old world Chinese just don’t seem to get it, that the modern way is the American way: deregulate, concentrate wealth in the top 1 percent and then make sure those at the top don’t pay taxes!

Treated well enough, the rich will fund desperately-needed things like cancer research. Just look at David Koch. Keep government regulators’ hands off his cancer-causing formaldehyde, and he’ll happily put $100 million toward a new Institute for (some) Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (As long as it’s named after him.)

Daphne Eviatar: New Obama Admin Procedures Import Troubling Aspects of Afghanistan Detention Review to Gitmo

Given that this is an additional process of review – additional to the right of habeas corpus, or review by a federal court, that the Supreme Court has said the law already requires – it’s arguably a step forward. Although it represents an unfortunate acceptance by the Obama administration of the entire concept of long-term administrative detention based on some ill-defined concept of dangerousness, at least it gives prisoners another opportunity to defend themselves.

But is this a real step forward, or merely a dance around the requirements of due process?

The Administration’s decision to assign prisoners “personal representatives” rather than lawyers, and to allow continued indefinite detention based on classified evidence, reflects a serious limitation in the new order that parallels the problems I’ve previously pointed out about the review system in Afghanistan.

Amy Goodman: Don’t Ice Out Public Media

 The aspen grove on Kebler Pass in Colorado is one of the largest organisms in the world. Thousands of aspen share the same, interconnected root system. Last weekend, I snowmobiled over the pass, 10,000 feet above sea level, between the towns of Paonia and Crested Butte. I was racing through Colorado to help community radio stations raise funds, squeezing in nine benefits in two days. The program director of public radio station KVNF in Paonia dropped us at the trailhead, where the program director of KBUT public radio in Crested Butte and a crew of station DJs picked us up on snowmobiles to whisk us 30 miles over the pass.

 Now that the Republicans have taken over the House of Representatives, one of their first acts was to “zero out” current funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Furthermore, Rep. Doug Lamborn from Colorado Springs has offered a bill to permanently strip CPB funding. Lamborn told NPR, “We live in a day of 150 cable channels-99 percent of Americans own a TV, we get Internet on our cell phones, we are in a day and age when we no longer need to subsidize broadcasting.”

 But public broadcasting was established precisely because of the dangers of the commercial media. When we are discussing war, we need a media not brought to us by weapons manufacturers. When discussing health-care reform, we need a media not sponsored by insurance companies or Big Pharma.

Christopher Hayes: Will Federal Regulators Crack Down on Oil Speculation?

While the Labor Department’s announcement last Friday that US employers had created 192,000 new jobs seems to confirm that the American economy is indeed showing signs of life, the adjective most observers have used to describe its recovery is “fragile.” The reasons are obvious: unemployment is still staggeringly high, household debt and underwater mortgages continue to put a drag on demand, and impending budget cuts by state and federal government could push unemployment back up and the economy back towards contraction.

But arguably the biggest threat to recovery is the price of oil. If oil prices in particular, and commodities in general, begin to rise, those trends will almost certainly constrain demand and consumer confidence at exactly the moment they are most needed. This week oil traded at $104.42 a barrel, up 7 percent from last week and at its highest since the September 26, 2008, close at $106.89. And we know from recent experience the oil prices (along with all sorts of other commodities) can skyrocket with little warning. Cast your memory back to the summer of 2008, before the financial crisis and in the heat of the presidential campaign. That summer, oil hit $147 a barrel and gas hit above $4 a gallon; airfare went through the roof and nearly every single major carrier came very close to declaring bankruptcy. Food prices shot up as well, with wheat trading up 137 percent year over year in July 2008, and corn 98 percent. Famine and food riots spread throughout the globe.

Sarah Posner: Meet Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, Star Witness in Peter King’s Anti-Muslim Show Trial

Although Representative Peter King (R-NY) hasn’t officially announced the witness list for Thursday’s hearing on “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response,” a leaked list confirms that his star witness will be Dr. Zuhdi Jasser. An Arizona physician and founder of the nonprofit American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Jasser is a favorite in the cottage industry created to hype the threat of “creeping Sharia law.” He’s frequently presented as a representative of-and advocate for-“true” moderate Islam.

Unlike more wild-eyed anti-Muslim agitators like Frank Gaffney (with whom Jasser has collaborated) and Pamela Geller, Jasser comes across as calm, sober and professional. He gained notoriety in 2008, with the release of the Clarion Fund film The Third Jihad, which claimed that a fifth column of Muslim extremists have infiltrated America with the intent of establishing a theocratic state. The star of the film, Jasser helped promote the claim that has ricocheted all over the right-that a single document written by a lone Muslim Brotherhood member in the early 1990s proves that American Muslim charities and advocacy groups are part of a plot to subvert the Constitution and America and install an Islamic theocracy.

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

March 9 is the 68th day of the year (69th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 297 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1841, the US Supreme Court rules on Amistad mutiny

At the end of a historic case, the U.S. Supreme Court rules, with only one dissent, that the African slaves who seized control of the Amistad slave ship had been illegally forced into slavery, and thus are free under American law.

The Amistad, also known as United States v. Libellants and Claimants of the Schooner Amistad, 40 U.S. (15 Pet.) 518 (1841), was a United States Supreme Court case resulting from the rebellion of slaves on board the Spanish schooner Amistad in 1839. It was an unusual “freedom suit“, as it involved international issues and parties, as well as United States law.

The rebellion broke out when the schooner, traveling along the coast of Cuba, was taken over by a group of captives who had earlier been kidnapped in Africa and sold into slavery. The Africans were later apprehended on the vessel near Long Island, New York, by the United States Revenue Cutter Service and taken into custody. The ensuing, widely publicized court cases in the United States helped the abolitionist movement.

In 1840, a federal trial court found that the initial transport of the Africans across the Atlantic (which did not involve the Amistad) had been illegal, because the international slave trade had been abolished, and the captives were thus not legally slaves but free. Given that they were illegally confined, the Africans were entitled to take whatever legal measures necessary to secure their freedom, including the use of force. After the US Supreme Court affirmed this finding on March 9, 1841, supporters arranged transportation for the Africans back to Africa in 1842. The case influenced numerous succeeding laws in the United States.

Arguments before the Supreme Court

On February 23, 1841, Attorney General Henry D. Gilpin began the oral argument phase before the Supreme Court. Gilpin first entered into evidence the papers of La Amistad which stated that the Africans were Spanish property. The documents being in order, Gilpin argued that the Court had no authority to rule against their validity. Gilpin contended that if the Africans were slaves (as evidenced by the documents), then they must be returned to their rightful owner, in this case, the Spanish government. Gilpin’s argument lasted two hours.

John Quincy Adams, former President of the United States and at that time a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts, had agreed to argue for the Africans, but when it was time for him to argue, felt ill-prepared. Roger Sherman Baldwin, who had already represented the captives in the lower cases, opened in his place.

Baldwin, a prominent attorney (who was no relation to Justice Baldwin, the lone dissenter on the Court) contended that the Spanish government was attempting to manipulate the Court to return “fugitives”. In actuality, Baldwin argued, the Spanish government sought the return of slaves, who had been freed by the District Court, a fact that the Spanish government was not appealing. Covering all the facts of the case, Baldwin spoke for four hours over the course of the 22nd and the 23rd.

John Quincy Adams rose to speak on February 24. First, he reminded the court that it was a part of the judicial branch, and not part of the executive. Adams introduced correspondence between the Spanish government and the Secretary of State, criticizing President Martin van Buren for his assumption of unconstitutional powers in the case.

   This review of all the proceedings of the Executive I have made with utmost pain, because it was necessary to bring it fully before your Honors, to show that the course of that department had been dictated, throughout, not by justice but by sympathy – and a sympathy the most partial and injust. And this sympathy prevailed to such a degree, among all the persons concerned in this business, as to have perverted their minds with regard to all the most sacred principles of law and right, on which the liberties of the United States are founded; and a course was pursued, from the beginning to the end, which was not only an outrage upon the persons whose lives and liberties were at stake, but hostile to the power and independence of the judiciary itself.

Adams argued that neither Pinckney’s Treaty nor the Adams-Onis Treaty were applicable to the case. Article IX of Pinckney’s Treaty referred only to property, and did not apply to people. As to The Antelope decision (10 Wheat. 124), which recognized “that possession on board of a vessel was evidence of property”, Adams said that did not apply either, since the precedent there was established prior to the prohibition of the foreign slave trade in the United States. Adams concluded after eight and one-half hours of speaking on March 1 (the Court had taken a recess following the death of Associate Justice Barbour).

Attorney General Gilpin concluded oral argument with a three-hour rebuttal on March 2. The Court retired to consider the case.

Decision of the Supreme Court

On March 9, Associate Justice Joseph Story delivered the Court’s decision. Article IX of Pinckney’s Treaty was ruled off topic since the Africans in question were never legal property. They were not criminals, as the U.S. Attorney’s Office argued, but rather “unlawfully kidnapped, and forcibly and wrongfully carried on board a certain vessel”. The documents submitted by Attorney General Gilpin were not evidence of property, but rather of fraud on the part of the Spanish government. Lt. Gedney and the USS Washington were to be awarded salvage from the vessel for having performed “a highly meritorious and useful service to the proprietors of the ship and cargo”.

When La Amistad came into Long Island, however, the Court believed it to be in the possession of the Africans on board, who had no intent to become slaves. Therefore, the Adams-Onis Treaty did not apply, and the President was not required to return the slaves to Africa.

Upon the whole, our opinion is, that the decree of the circuit court, affirming that of the district court, ought to be affirmed, except so far as it directs the negroes to be delivered to the president, to be transported to Africa, in pursuance of the act of the 3rd of March 1819; and as to this, it ought to be reversed: and that the said negroes be declared to be free, and be dismissed from the custody of the court, and go without delay.

 141 BC – Liu Che, posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Han, assumes the throne over the Han Dynasty of China.

1009 – First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg.

1276 – Augsburg becomes an Imperial Free City.

1500 – The fleet of Pedro Alvares Cabral leaves Lisbon for the Indies. The fleet will discover Brazil which lies within boundaries granted to Portugal in the Treaty of Tordesillas.

1566 – David Rizzio, private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, is murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland.

1765 – After a campaign by the writer Voltaire, judges in Paris posthumously exonerate Jean Calas of murdering his son. Calas had been tortured and executed in 1762 on the charge, though his son may have actually committed suicide.

1796 – Napoleon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Josephine de Beauharnais.

1811 – Paraguayan forces defeat Manuel Belgrano at the Battle of Tacuari.

1841 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.

1842 – Giuseppe Verdi’s third opera, Nabucco, receives its premiere performance in Milan; its success establishes Verdi as one of Italy’s foremost opera writers.

1842 – The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush.

1847 – Mexican-American War: The first large-scale amphibious assault in U.S. history is launched in the Siege of Veracruz.

1862 – American Civil War: The USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fight to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between two ironclad warships.

1896 – Prime Minister Francesco Crispi resigns following the Italian defeat at the Battle of Adowa.

1910 – The Westmoreland County Coal Strike, involving 15,000 coal miners represented by the United Mine Workers, begins.

1916 – Pancho Villa leads nearly 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico.

1925 – Pink’s War: The first Royal Air Force operation conducted independently of the British Army or Royal Navy begins.

1933 – Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to Congress, the first of his New Deal policies.

1944 – World War II: Japanese troops counter-attack American forces on Hill 700 in Bougainville in a battle that would last five days.

1944 – The Soviet Air Forces conduct heaving bombing on Tallinn, Estonia, killing up to 800 people, mostly civilians.

1946 – Bolton Wanderers stadium disaster at Burnden Park, Bolton, England, 33 killed and hundreds amongst the injured

1954 – McCarthyism: CBS television broadcasts the See It Now episode, “A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy”, produced by Fred Friendly.

1956 – Soviet military suppresses a mass demonstrations in the Georgian SSR, reacting to Nikita Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization policy.

1957 – A magnitude 8.3 earthquake in the Andreanof Islands, Alaska triggers a Pacific-wide tsunami causing extensive damage to Hawaii and Oahu.

1959 – The Barbie doll makes its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.

1960 – Dr. Belding Hibbard Scribner implants for the first time a shunt he invented into a patient, which allows the patient to receive hemodialysis on a regular basis.

1961 – Sputnik 9 successfully launches, carrying a human dummy nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich, and demonstrating that Soviet Union was ready to begin human spaceflight.

1977 – The Hanafi Muslim Siege: In a thirty-nine hour standoff, armed Hanafi Muslims seize three Washington, D.C., buildings, killing two and taking 149 hostage.

1989 – Financially-troubled Eastern Air Lines filed for bankruptcy.

1990 – Dr. Antonia Novello is sworn in as Surgeon General of the United States, becoming the first female and Hispanic American to serve in that position.

1991 – Massive demonstrations are held against Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade. Two people are killed and tanks are deployed in the streets.

1997 – Comet Hale-Bopp: Observers in China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia are treated to a rare double feature as an eclipse permits Hale-Bopp to be seen during the day.

2010 – The first same-sex marriages in Washington, D.C., take place.

Holidays and observances

   * Baron Bliss Day (Belize)

   * Christian Feast Day

         o Catherine of Bologna

         o Forty Martyrs of Sebaste

         o Frances of Rome

         o Gregory of Nyssa

         o Pacian

   * Teacher’s Day or Eid Al Moalim  (Lebanon)

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Some of this is just really depressing. Where is this country headed?

• From Michael Moore: The Forbes 400 vs. Everybody Else
  

  According to the most recent information, the Forbes 400 now have a greater net worth than the bottom 50% of U.S. households combined.

  In 2009, the total net worth of the Forbes 400 was $1.27 trillion.

  The best information now available shows that in 2009 the bottom 60% (yes, now it’s 60%, not 50%) of U.S. households owned only 2.3% of total U.S. wealth.

  Total U.S. household net worth — rich, middle class and poor combined — at the time the Forbes list came out was $53.15 trillion. So the bottom 60% of households possessed just $1.22 trillion of that $53.15 trillion, less than the Forbes 400.

  Thus the Forbes 400 unquestionably have more wealth than the bottom 50%.

  By contrast, in 2007 the bottom 50% of U.S. households owned slightly more wealth than the Forbes 400; the economic meltdown has hurt the bottom more than the top. (And in fact, in 2010 the net worth of the Forbes 400 jumped to $1.37 trillion.)

• From TPM: Republicans Move To Strip Detainee Authority From Holder And Future Attorneys General
  

  Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) are teaming up with Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee to write legislation that would take decisions about trying detainees out of the attorney general’s hands and hand that power to the secretary of defense.

  In the wake of the White House’s new executive order allowing Guantanamo detainees to be held indefinitely, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) unveiled legislation that would, among other things, affirm the military’s right to detain, hold and interrogate detainees at its discretion without Department of Justice or Attorney General Eric Holder involvement.

  What digby said about the above:

  Are these guys under the misapprehension that the Secretary of Defense doesn’t serve at the pleasure of the president, exactly as the Attorney General does? What’s the point of this?

• From the New York Times: AARP Sues U.S. Over Effects of Reverse Mortgages
  

  Reverse mortgages, which pay older homeowners a regular sum against the equity in their house, are supposed to shield borrowers from economic upheaval. But the popular loans have become tangled up in the real estate collapse.

  AARP, the seniors’ organization, filed suit Tuesday against the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which regulates reverse mortgages. The suit asserts that policy changes by HUD are pushing older homeowners into foreclosure.

  The case was filed in Federal District Court for the District of Columbia by the AARP Foundation, the organization’s charitable arm, and the law firm of Mehri & Skalet on behalf of the surviving spouses of three homeowners who had bought reverse mortgages. All three are facing eviction, the suit says.

  “HUD has illegally and without notice changed the rules in the middle of the game at the expense of vulnerable older people,” said Jean Constantine-Davis, a senior lawyer at the AARP Foundation.

  This is happening with a Democrat in the White House?

• Don’t blame me. I voted for the madam.
  
  From libbyliberal at Corrente:

  Now NY Guv Cuomo Declares War on Brain-Damaged Babies (I kid you not!)

  Cuomo wants to put a $250,000 lifetime cap on medical compensation for brain injury to a child caused by medical malpractice. This may sound like a lot of money, but in the course of a lifetime, medical bills being what they are and what they will undoubtedly climb to, it is very likely far from adequate.

  But now is the time to screw anyone and anything for profit or political expediency. This is how things are in Obamaworld, continuation of Bushworld. Profits over people. Profits over helpless little people — very little people. Obama has made it safe and stylish for the Democrats to be as much outright bastards as the Republicans. Obama has his catfood commission. Cuomo has his “Medicaid Redesign Team” including some strong-willed, well compensated industry lobbyists. Familiar playbook?

  How low can these corporate pimped ones go? It seems bottomless.

• I’m not surprised at this either considering Obama has thrown American women under the bus.
  
  From votermom at Corrente:

  What Having A Misogynist-In-Chief Means

  White House throws Afghan women under the bus

  A senior U.S. official involved in Afghanistan policy said changes to the land program also stem from a desire at the top levels of the Obama administration to triage the war and focus on the overriding goal of ending the conflict.

     “Gender issues are going to have to take a back seat to other priorities,” said the senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal policy deliberations. “There’s no way we can be successful if we maintain every special interest and pet project. All those pet rocks in our rucksack were taking us down.”

  Afghan women are pet rocks. Time to toss them aside so Karzai can woo the Talibanistic to his side.

  After all the hand wringing Obama loyalist did about “what will happen to the women if we leave now?, what back wrenching excuse will they have for Obama now?

• So much for democracy in Iraq.
  
  From the New York Times:

  Iraq Shuts Office of Protest Organizers

  BAGHDAD – Two political parties that led demonstrations in Baghdad over the past two weeks said Monday that security forces controlled by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had ordered them to close their offices.

  The actions, which the government said were merely evictions, came amid growing concerns that Mr. Maliki’s American-backed government is using force and other measures to stifle dissent in this fragile democracy, where tens of thousands of demonstrators have seized on the upheaval sweeping the Arab world to rally for government reforms and better services.

  Officials for the Iraqi Nation Party and the Iraqi Communist Party said in interviews that dozens of armed security forces had come to their offices here Sunday, two days after another round of demonstrations.

  Though the parties do not have any seats in Parliament, they are outspoken critics of Mr. Maliki’s government. They called the evictions illegal efforts to weaken them.

• From Jason Linkins at HuffPo: Mike Huckabee Seeks Clarification On Whether His Mau Mau Uprising Comments Were Dumb Or Not
  

  Over at Mediaite, Mark Joyella runs down the highlights of an interview that presidential aspirant Mike Huckabee gave on Sirius Radio’s POTUS channel, in which he responds to last week’s nonsensical Kenya-Mau Mau Uprising bleatings by…well, I was going to say “by continuing to put his foot in his mouth,” but that’s not exactly what he’s doing. Would that he had! Then, the noises he made would have sounded more like “MMMMHHUUNNGGGH GGHHHHLLLEEEGGHHH,” punctuated by choked inhalations.

  If Huckabee did spend the next three days gnawing on his own metatarsals, I’d be inclined to say he would “win the week.” Instead, Huckabee offered up some more excuse making. Apparently now it’s everyone else’s fault, for evaluating his remarks in context!

     On the reaction to his comments on Kenya, Huckabee says they “ranged from-this guy is so dumb he doesn’t know that Barack Obama grew up in Indonesia not Kenya-all the way to the other extreme…well, I can’t be both. I can’t be the dumbest guy in the room and the smartest guy in the room at the same time.”

  Is there really anybody dumb enough to say “Huckapoop” is the “smartest guy in the room”?
  
  

• Heh. W doesn’t like the press.

  From Think Progress:

  In Unprecedented Move, Bush Bars Media From Covering Desert Town Hall Speaker Series Speech

  President Bush spoke at the Desert Town Hall speaker series in Southern California yesterday and banned all media from covering the event. The former president even barred representatives from two of the events’ sponsors, a local CBS affiliate and The Desert Sun, who were scheduled to moderate the question and answer period. A Desert Town Hall official said he didn’t recall such a request being made by any of the event’s previous speakers, which have included Tony Blair, ret. Gen. Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice