No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Property rights, and their transfer, are governed by laws with factually thousands of years of precedent.  The earliest records are in hieroglyphics and cuneiform.

Are Obama and Congress Set To Screw American Counties, Homeowners and Give Wall Street Mortgage Banksters a Retroactive Immunity Bailout?

By: bmaz Friday November 12, 2010 7:40 pm

Why would the Obama Administration and Congress be doing this? Because the foreclosure fraud suits and other challenges to the mass production slice, dice and securitize lifestyle on the American finance sector, the very same activity that wrecked the economy and put the nation in the depression it is either still in, or barely recovering from, depending on your point of view, have left the root balance sheets and stability of the largest financial institutions on the wrong side of the credibility and, likely, the legal auditory line. And that affects not only our economy, but that of the world who is all chips in on the American real estate and financial products markets.

What does that mean to you? Everything. As quoted above, even the most conservative estimate (and that estimate is based on only a single recording fee per mortgage, when in reality there are almost certainly multiple recordings legally required for most all mortgages due to the slicing, dicing and tranching necessary to accomplish the securitization that has occurred) for the state of California alone is $60 billion dollars. That is $60,000,000,000.00. California alone is actually likely several times that. Your county is in the loss column heavy from this too.

…

This is a death knell to the real property system as we have always known it and the county structure of American society as we have known it. And millions of people will have lost the ability to benefit from the established rule and process of law that they understood and relied on. After the fact. Retroactively. So Obama and Congress can once again give a handout and bailout to the very banks and financial malefactors that put us here.

I don’t weep for the counties, they’re not much more than lines on a map in Connecticut, but I do for the rule of law.  If you don’t give a rat’s ass about the 5th Amendment, you might about ex post facto.

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

November 13 is the 317th day of the year (318th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 48 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1982, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. after a week long national salute to Americans who served in the Vietnam War.

The Memorial Wall, designed by Maya Lin, is made up of two gabbro walls 246 feet 9 inches (75 m) long. The walls are sunk into the ground, with the earth behind them. At the highest tip (the apex where they meet), they are 10.1 feet (3 m) high, and they taper to a height of eight inches (20 cm) at their extremities. Stone for the wall came from Bangalore, Karnataka, India, and was deliberately chosen because of its reflective quality. Stone cutting and fabrication was done in Barre, Vermont. Stones were then shipped to Memphis, Tennessee where the names were etched. The etching was completed using a photoemulsion and sandblasting process. The negatives used in the process are in storage at the Smithsonian Institution. When a visitor looks upon the wall, his or her reflection can be seen simultaneously with the engraved names, which is meant to symbolically bring the past and present together. One wall points toward the Washington Monument, the other in the direction of the Lincoln Memorial, meeting at an angle. Each wall has 72 panels, 70 listing names (numbered 1E through 70E and 70W through 1W) and 2 very small blank panels at the extremities. There is a pathway along the base of the Wall, where visitors may walk, read the names, make a pencil rubbing of a particular name, or pray.

Inscribed on the walls with the Optima typeface are the names of servicemen who were either confirmed to be KIA (Killed in Action) or remained classified as MIA (Missing in Action) when the walls were constructed in 1982. They are listed in chronological order, starting at the apex on panel 1E in 1959 (although it was later discovered that the first casualties were military advisers who were killed by artillery fire in 1957), moving day by day to the end of the eastern wall at panel 70E, which ends on May 25, 1968, starting again at panel 70W at the end of the western wall which completes the list for May 25, 1968, and returning to the apex at panel 1W in 1975. Symbolically, this is described as a “wound that is closed and healing.” Information about rank, unit, and decorations are not given. The wall listed 58,159 names when it was completed in 1993; as of June 2010, there are 58,267 names, including 8 women. Approximately 1,200 of these are listed as missing (MIAs, POWs, and others), denoted with a cross; the confirmed dead are marked with a diamond. If the missing return alive, the cross is circumscribed by a circle (although this has never occurred as of March 2009); if their death is confirmed, a diamond is superimposed over the cross. According to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, “there is no definitive answer to exactly how many, but there could be as many as 38 names of personnel who survived, but through clerical errors, were added to the list of fatalities provided by the Department of Defense.” Directories are located on nearby podiums so that visitors may locate specific names.

 1002 – English king Ethelred II orders the killing of all Danes in England, known today as the St. Brice’s Day massacre.

1160 – Louis VII of France marries Adele of Champagne.

1642 – First English Civil War: Battle of Turnham Green – the Royalist forces withdraw in the face of the Parliamentarian army and fail to take London.

1775 – American Revolutionary War: Patriot revolutionary forces under Col. Ethan Allen attack Montreal, Quebec, defended by British General Guy Carleton.

1841 – James Braid first sees a demonstration of animal magnetism, which leads to his study of the subject he eventually calls hypnotism.

1851 – The Denny Party lands at Alki Point, the first settlers in what would become Seattle, Washington.

1864 – The new Constitution of Greece is adopted.

1887 – Bloody Sunday clashes in central London.

1909 – Collier’s magazine accuses United States Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger of questionable dealings in Alaskan coal fields.

1916 – Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes is expelled from the Labor Party over his support for conscription.

1918 – Allied troops occupy Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

1927 – The Holland Tunnel opens to traffic as the first Hudson River vehicle tunnel linking New Jersey to New York City.

1941 – World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is torpedoed by U 81, sinking the following day.

1942 – World War II: Naval Battle of Guadalcanal – U.S. and Japanese ships engage in an intense, close-quarters surface naval engagement during the Battle of Guadalcanal.

1947 – Russia completes development of the AK-47, one of the first proper assault rifles

1950 – General Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, President of Venezuela, is assassinated in Caracas.

1954 – Great Britain defeats France to capture the first ever Rugby League World Cup in Paris in front of around 30,000 spectators.

1956 – The United States Supreme Court declares Alabama and Montgomery, Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal, thus ending the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

1965 – The SS Yarmouth Castle burns and sinks 60 miles off Nassau with the loss of 90 lives.

1969 – Vietnam War: Anti-war protesters in Washington, D.C. stage a symbolic March Against Death.

1970 – Bhola cyclone: A 150-mph tropical cyclone hits the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an estimated 500,000 people in one night. This is regarded as the 20th century’s worst natural disaster.

1971 – The American space probe, Mariner 9, becomes the first spacecraft to orbit another planet successfully, swinging into its planned trajectory around Mars.

1982 – Ray Mancini defeats Duk Koo Kim in a boxing match held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kim’s subsequent death (on November 17) leads to significant changes in the sport.

1982 – The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. after a march to its site by thousands of Vietnam War veterans.

1985 – The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupts and melts a glacier, causing a lahar (volcanic mudslide) that buries Armero, Colombia, killing approximately 23,000 people.

1988 – Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian law student in Portland, Oregon is beaten to death by members of the Neo-Nazi group East Side White Pride.

1990 – In Aramoana, New Zealand, David Gray shoots dead 13 people, in what becomes known as the Aramoana Massacre.

1992 – The High Court of Australia rules in Dietrich v The Queen that although there is no absolute right to have publicly funded counsel, in most circumstances a judge should grant any request for an adjournment or stay when an accused is unrepresented.

1994 – In a referendum voters in Sweden decide to join the European Union.

1995 – A truck-bomb explodes outside of a US-operated Saudi Arabian National Guard training center in Riyadh, killing five Americans and two Indians. A group called the Islamic Movement for Change claims responsibility.

2000 – Philippine House Speaker Manuel B. Villar, Jr. passes the articles of impeachment against Philippine President Joseph Estrada.

2001 – War on Terrorism: In the first such act since World War II, US President George W. Bush signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against foreigners suspected of connections to terrorist acts or planned acts on the United States.

2002 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq agrees to the terms of the UN Security Council Resolution 1441.

2002 – The oil tanker Prestige sinks off the Galician coast and causes a huge oil spill.

2005 – Andrew Stimpson, a 25-year old British man, is reported as the first person proven to have been “cured” of HIV

2007 – An explosion hits the south wing of the House of Representatives of the Philippines in Quezon City, killing four people, including Congressman Wahab Akbar, and wounding six.

Too Dumb and Dishonest to be anything but a Plagiarist

Our former deciderer-

George Bush Book ‘Decision Points’ Lifted From Advisers’ Books

by Ryan Grim, The Huffington Post

11-12-10 04:17 PM

When Crown Publishing inked a deal with George W. Bush for his memoirs, the publisher knew it wasn’t getting Faulkner. But the book, at least, promises “gripping, never-before-heard detail” about the former president’s key decisions, offering to bring readers “aboard Air Force One on 9/11, in the hours after America’s most devastating attack since Pearl Harbor; at the head of the table in the Situation Room in the moments before launching the war in Iraq,” and other undisclosed and weighty locations.

Crown also got a mash-up of worn-out anecdotes from previously published memoirs written by his subordinates, from which Bush lifts quotes word for word, passing them off as his own recollections. He took equal license in lifting from nonfiction books about his presidency or newspaper or magazine articles from the time. Far from shedding light on how the president approached the crucial “decision points” of his presidency, the clip jobs illuminate something shallower and less surprising about Bush’s character: He’s too lazy to write his own memoir.

Bush, on his book tour, makes much of the fact that he largely wrote the book himself, guffawing that critics who suspected he didn’t know how to read are now getting a comeuppance. Not only does Bush know how to read, it turns out, he knows how to Google, too. Or his assistant does. Bush notes in his acknowledgments that “[m]uch of the research for this book was conducted by the brilliant and tireless Peter Rough. Peter spent the past 18 months digging through archives, searching the internet[s], and sifting through reams of paper.” Bush also collaborated on the book with his former speechwriter, Christopher Michel.

Well this is it, last race of the season.  I won’t kid you, my guy Lew needs to finish first and everyone else has to park.  To add insult Hamilton was under investigation for an incident with Senna during practice and could suffer a 5 grid penalty.

The Constructors’ Championship is already done- Red Bull, McLaren, Scuderia Marlboro.  Fair enough I suppose, the others were playing catchup to Red Bull all year.  It’s a big triumph for the former Jaguar/Ford team which knew nothing but futility in it’s previous incarnation.  They’re now the biggest in Formula One too, with 2 separate groups (Toro Rosso, running the Ferrari engine) and 4 cars on track.

Speaking of engines, the Top contenders are all on used engines and are using different ones today than they used yesterday in practice.  Both the Red Bull drivers have relatively low milage, ultra reliable Renaults, everyone else is running the best they have left.  Barrichello’s stopped during the first practice.

Yas Marina is about 3.4 miles and because of it’s long straight and a couple of other fast bits can put a lot of strain on brakes.  It’s a relatively new track and while it’s designed to resemble Monaco it’s really nothing like it at all.  Yeah, sure, there are high walls and stuff, but they’re mostly not as close as they look on TV.  Instead there are acres of smooth asphalt run off areas, no gravel traps at all.  This has the unintended(?) side effect of making drivers more aggressive since there is rarely a parking penalty for an off.

Now you’d naturally think that being in Abu Dhabi and all you wouldn’t have to worry about rain, but it did in fact, quite heavily, just before yesterday’s practice and at practice time it was 80 degrees with 60% humidity.  The drivers won’t have to worry about ‘rubbering in’ the track though since after almost 2 months of down time the support races in GP 3 and GP 2 will stage their season finales before the main event (Speed’s coverage of GP 2 starts at 6 am).

About that rubber, next year Pirelli is taking over from Bridgestone as the sole source supplier to Formula One and they’re already talking about deliberately putting out ‘risky’ tires to encourage ‘tire management strategies’.

Well, for one thing they’re tactics not strategies and were I a driver that would certainly give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside, especially after parking.

Branson’s toy Virgin team has sold off the Lloyd’s Bank stake to Russian Sports Car manufacturer Marussia who would dearly love to have Petrov on the team next year, but it would be a big step down from Renault for him.

After this racing starts again on March 12th, 2011 with Qualifying in Bahrain and they’ll be adding a 20th race in India.  If you want to see some of the other changes click the link.

I think I’ll spare you my comparison of Auto World and Ferrari World until tomorrow.  Pre-race coverage starts at 7:30 am.  Qualifying will repeat at 4:30 pm.  Surprising developments (if any) below.

Pacific leaders pledge to pursue free trade

U.S., China, Japan put aside differences as Obama wraps 10-day trip

Associated Press  

YOKOHAMA, Japan – Leaders of the world’s three biggest economies – the U.S., China and Japan – all pledged Saturday to stick to free trade, apparently putting aside acrimony over currencies that has threatened to revive pressures for protectionism.

The vows against backsliding toward retaliatory trade moves came at an annual summit of Pacific Rim leaders, just a day after a fractious summit of the Group of 20 major economies in South Korea.

Rescue Workers Train in the Disneyland of Terror

‘Disaster City’

By Samiha Shafy

The Japanese delegation seems mesmerized by the sweating firefighters hanging from ropes in front of a building, as they saw holes into the walls. It’s noon in College Station, Texas. The sun is directly overhead, and the air is hot, humid and still.

A US military Black Hawk helicopter is circling in the sky above the Japanese group. Plumes of smoke rise into the air in the distance, past collapsed houses, piles of rubble and the remains of a derailed Amtrak train. The smoke is coming from buildings and wrecked planes filled with straw..

USA

I.R.S. Sits on Data Pointing to Missing Children

 

By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI

Published: November 12, 2010

For parents of missing children, any scrap of information that could lead to an abductor is precious.

Three years into an excruciating search for her abducted son, Susan Lau got such a tip. Her estranged husband, who had absconded with their 9-year-old from Brooklyn, had apparently filed a tax return claiming the boy as an exemption.

Investigators moved quickly to seek the address where his tax refund had been mailed. But the Internal Revenue Service was not forthcoming.

Opposition to U.S. trial likely to keep mastermind of 9/11 attacks in detention



By Peter Finn and Anne E. Kornblut

Washington Post Staff Writers  

Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, will probably remain in military detention without trial for the foreseeable future, according to Obama administration officials.

The administration has concluded that it cannot put Mohammed on trial in federal court because of the opposition of lawmakers in Congress and in New York. There is also little internal support for resurrecting a military prosecution at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The latter option would alienate liberal supporters.

Europe

Wanted: ideas for how to kick-start Paris nightlife

Conference looks at ways to resurrect ‘fun capital of the world’  

By John Lichfield in Paris Saturday, 13 November 2010

Paris, city of light and city of lovers, is in danger of becoming the city of lights-out and the city of sleepers.

A two-day official conference, ending today, will suggest ways of waking up an increasingly somnolent city once regarded as the fun capital of the world.

The “parliament of the night”, sponsored by the Paris town hall, is considering, among other things, later hours for public transport, subsidies for the soundproofing of clubs and the creation of “ghettos of fun”, or dedicated clubland districts where noisy all-night activities will be welcomed.

Merkel would lose an election, poll reveals

The Irish Times – Saturday, November 13, 2010  

DEREK SCALLY in Berlin

GERMANY’S ECONOMY is booming and dole queues haven’t been as short in 20 years. But if German voters went to the polls tomorrow, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government would be ousted after just a year in office.

That’s the verdict of yesterday’s ARD public television poll, giving Dr Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) just 31 per cent support, with a disastrous 5 per cent for her junior coalition partner, the Free Democrats (FDP).

A surge in support for the opposition Green Party means they could return to office with their former coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD), with 23 and 26 per cent support respectively. The Left Party is steady 10 per cent.

Middle East

The village built on thorny ground

Life is about to getql more complicatedql for a village on the Israel-Lebanon border, writes qlSheera Frenkel.

November 13, 2010  

THERE’S no line marking the divide between north and south Ghajar, a village that straddles Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, but soon there could be an international border between the two now that Israel has decided to accept a United Nations demarcation line.

For the 2200 ethnic Syrian inhabitants – who carry Israeli passports – long at the nexus of one of the region’s most complicated territorial disputes, life is about to become still more complicated. Israel is giving the northern half to the UN peacekeeping force and keeping the southern part, which according to all maps belongs to Syria.

Middle East doves energized by election  

 

By Ira Chernus  

Palestine as America’s next Vietnam? Like all historical analogies, it’s far from perfect. We aren’t about to send the United States Army to the West Bank or Gaza to kill and die in a war that can’t be won. Where else in the world, though, is American weaponry and political power so obviously used to suppress a Vietcong-like movement of national liberation (a bill the Taliban hardly fit)?

And what other conflict is as politically divisive as the Israeli-Palestinian one? More than the Afghan war, the struggle at the heart of the Middle East evokes the kind of powerful passions here that once marked the debate over Vietnam, pitting hawks against doves. Not that the progressive media are yet portraying it that way. They’re more likely to give us an increasingly outdated picture of an all-powerful Jewish “Israel lobby”, which supposedly has a lock on US policy and dominates the rest of us.

Asia

More questions than answers on a day of many rumours but no release

Saturday, 13 November 2010

By Phoebe Kennedy in Rangoon and Andrew Buncombe

A day of swirling expectation and excitement pulsing through Burma ended last night with many questions but few answers. Crucially, there was also no sign of the detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose release had been widely anticipated.

During the day, hundreds of the democracy leader’s supporters had gathered outside the simple offices of her National League for Democracy (NLD) in the centre of Rangoon, spilling out of the few cramped rooms and on to the roadside. Inside, elderly party activists sat on the floor.

Africa

South Africa’s white farmers expand into Mozambique

The Irish Times – Saturday, November 13, 2010

BILL CORCORAN in Cape Town  

INCREASING NUMBERS of white commercial farmers from South Africa are establishing themselves in countries across the continent because of fears a revised land reform programme being considered by government will curtail opportunities at home.

About 800 South African commercial farmers have signed land deals to expand production into Mozambique over the past few years, according to the country’s largest commercial farming union AgriSA, and many others are considering options elsewhere.

Speaking ahead of a conference next week to discuss possible opportunities in Mozambique’s Gaza province, AgriSA deputy president Theo de Jager said South African farmers have received new land offers to grow crops in over 20 countries.

Revealed: Shell’s PR tricks in Nigeria

The oil company went into damage control after the execution of activists 15 years ago.

Eveline Lubbers and Andy Rowell

November 13, 2010

LONDON: Secret internal documents from Shell show that in the immediate aftermath of the execution of the Nigerian activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, the oil company adopted a PR strategy of cosying up to BBC editors and singling out non-government organisations it hoped to ”sway”.

The documents reveal previously hidden efforts by the company to deflect the PR storm that engulfed it after the Nigerian activist was hanged by the country’s military government. Shell faced accusations that it had colluded with the government over the deaths of the writer and other activists..

Latin America

Teotihuacan ruins explored by a robot

Teotihuacan: The grainy footage shot by the robot was presented Wednesday by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History. It shows a narrow, open space left after the tunnel was intentionally closed off between A.D. 200 and 250 and filled with debris nearly to the roof.  

By Jorge Barrera, Associated Press / November 12, 2010

The first robotic exploration of a pre-Hispanic ruin in Mexico has revealed that a 2,000-year-old tunnel under a temple at the famed Teotihuacan ruins has a perfectly carved arch roof and appears stable enough to enter, archaeologists announced Wednesday.

Archaeologists lowered the remote-controlled, camera-equipped vehicle into the 12-foot-wide (4-meter) corridor and sent wheeling through it to see if it was safe for researchers to enter. The one-foot (30-cm) wide robot was called “Tlaloque 1” after the Aztec rain god.

Ignoring Asia A Blog

(10 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

No? OK, but apparently four engineers from prestigious universities using integral calculus, high speed photography and borrowed equipment from the International Space Station, curious about how cats drink figured out just how our feline companions and their larger counterparts in the wild lap it up. It isn’t what you would think, after all, cats are not dogs.

Cats lap water so fast that the human eye cannot follow what is happening, which is why the trick had apparently escaped attention until now. With the use of high-speed photography, the neatness of the feline solution has been captured.

Writing in the Thursday issue of Science, the four engineers report that the cat’s lapping method depends on its instinctive ability to calculate the point at which gravitational force would overcome inertia and cause the water to fall.

What happens is that the cat darts its tongue, curving the upper side downward so that the tip lightly touches the surface of the water.

The tongue is then pulled upward at high speed, drawing a column of water behind it.

Just at the moment that gravity finally overcomes the rush of the water and starts to pull the column down – snap! The cat’s jaws have closed over the jet of water and swallowed it.

The cat laps four times a second – too fast for the human eye to see anything but a blur – and its tongue moves at a speed of one meter per second. . . .

At first, Dr. Stocker and his colleagues assumed that the raspy hairs on a cat’s tongue, so useful for grooming, must also be involved in drawing water into its mouth. But the tip of the tongue, which is smooth, turned out to be all that was needed.

Mostly premiers.  Yas Marina Qualifying @ 8 am.

Why the big secret? People are smart. They can handle it.

A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.

What’s the catch?

The catch? The catch is you will sever every human contact. Nobody will ever know you exist anywhere. Ever. I’ll give you to sunrise to think it over.

Hey! Is it worth it?

Oh yeah, it’s worth it. If you’re strong enough!

• ABC Family– Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• AMC– Wrong Turn, The Walking Dead x 2 (this week’s)
• Disney– Avalon High (World Premier), Wizards of Waverly Place (Season Premier), Fish Hooks (premier)
• E!– The Soup (premier)
• ESPN– Hoopies, Jazz @ Hawks, Trail Blazers @ Thunder
• ESPN2– College Throwball, Boise State @ Idaho
• Food– Outrageous Food (premier)
• FX– What Happens in Vegas (again), Just Married
• National Geographic– Dog Whisperer (premier)
• Oxygen– Hairspray (not the good 1988 version)
• Sci Fi– Sanctuary
• Style– Chicago
• TBS– Meet the Fockers x 2
• Turner Classic– Tea for Two, The Daughter of Rosie O’Grady (Gordon MacRae night)
• TLC– What Not to Wear marathon (2 premiers)
• TNT– Men in Black x 2
• Toon– Sym-Bionic Titan, Generator Rex, Clone Wars (premiers)
• True– Conspiracy Theory With Jesse Ventura marathon (with premier)
• USA– Pretty Woman x 2, Juno

Later-

• Bravo– The World is Not Enough
• Comedy– Lewis Black: Stark Raving Black (premier)
• Sci Fi– Stargate Universe (this week’s), Sanctuary (Instapeat)
• Style– Pretty in Pink
• Turner Classic– Oklahoma (more Gordon)
• TNT– Ali
• Toon– Childrens Hospital, The Office (the good one)
• Speed– Formula 1 Debrief

Dave hosts Kelly Ripa, Greg Fitzsimmons, and Reba McEntire.  No Conan.

You’ll dress only in attire specially sanctioned by MiB special services. You’ll conform to the identity we give you, eat where we tell you, live where we tell you. From now on you’ll have no identifying marks of any kind. You’ll not stand out in any way. Your entire image is crafted to leave no lasting memory with anyone you encounter. You’re a rumor, recognizable only as deja vu and dismissed just as quickly. You don’t exist; you were never even born. Anonymity is your name. Silence your native tongue. You’re no longer part of the System. You’re above the System. Over it. Beyond it. We’re “them.” We’re “they.” We are the Men in Black.

You see, the difference between you and me is I make this look good.

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Myanmar’s Suu Kyi ‘on cusp of freedom’

AFP

Fri Nov 12, 11:48 am ET

2 Iraq power-sharing deal frayed as Maliki named PM

by Prashant Rao, AFP

1 hr 34 mins ago

3 China-US spat hobbles G20 push on world economy

by Jitendra Joshi, AFP

Fri Nov 12, 12:26 pm ET

4 Medvedev says he knew about double agent

by Anna Smolchenko, AFP

Fri Nov 12, 12:19 pm ET

5 Russia’s quarterly growth slows sharply due to drought

by Dmitry Zaks, AFP

Fri Nov 12, 1:03 pm ET

6 Formula One driver Hamilton happy with his pace

by Tim Collings, AFP

2 hrs 33 mins ago

7 Red Bull F1 bosses want ‘free for all’ finale

AFP

Fri Nov 12, 9:32 am ET

8 Latest Harry Potter whets appetite for finale

by Loic Vennin, AFP

Fri Nov 12, 3:34 am ET

9 ‘Breakthrough’ ceremony opens Asian Games

by Peter Stebbings, AFP

Fri Nov 12, 12:47 pm ET

10 EU heavyweights move to calm bond markets

by Judith Evans, AFP

Fri Nov 12, 8:56 am ET

11 McIntosh boosts New Zealand in India cricket Test

by Abhaya Srivastava, AFP

Fri Nov 12, 8:05 am ET

12 Bomb stokes fears Islamists expanding in Pakistan

by Hasan Mansoor, AFP

Fri Nov 12, 7:56 am ET

13 Ireland in aid talks with EU, rescue likely: sources

By Jan Strupczewski and Padraic Halpin, Reuters

1 hr 51 mins ago

14 G20 closes ranks but skims over toughest tasks

By Alex Richardson and David Ljunggren, Reuters

1 hr 14 mins ago

15 Obama, Republicans set for "lame-duck" tax test

By Thomas Ferraro, Retuers

Fri Nov 12, 11:33 am ET

16 Report cautions Obama on high cost of Afghan war

By David Alexander, Reuters

2 hrs 38 mins ago

17 GM has orders for $60 billion in stock: sources

By Clare Baldwin and Soyoung Kim, Reuters

25 mins ago

18 Special Report: The two lives of Angela Merkel

By Andreas Rinke and Stephen Brown, Reuters

Fri Nov 12, 6:59 am ET

19 South Korea upbeat on resolving U.S. trade deal soon

By Jack Kim, Reuters

Fri Nov 12, 7:10 am ET

20 Private banks keep hiring as rich get richer

By Tommy Wilkes, Reuters

Fri Nov 12, 6:02 am ET

21 Rumors swirl in Myanmar over Suu Kyi release

By Aung Hla Tun, Reuters

Fri Nov 12, 9:00 am ET

22 G20 sees small window to seal WTO Doha deal in 2011

By Jonathan Lynn, Reuters

Fri Nov 12, 9:47 am ET

23 Ireland says surge in borrowing costs "very serious"

By Carmel Crimmins, Reuters

Thu Nov 11, 10:14 am ET

24 G-20 refuses to back US push on China’s currency

By VIJAY JOSHI, Associated Press

1 hr 5 mins ago

25 Murkowski camp says she’s heading for re-election

By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press

1 hr 7 mins ago

26 Vigil held for Myanmar pro-democracy leader

Associated Press

1 hr 8 mins ago

27 AP Exclusive: Suspect turns case against priest

By GILLIAN FLACCUS and TERENCE CHEA, Associated Press

51 mins ago

28 Pot o’ Gold: Family’s old vase fetches $83 million

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press

1 hr 10 mins ago

29 Obama sees progress in measured steps, no home run

By BEN FELLER, AP White House Correspondent

31 mins ago

30 Doctors brace for possible big Medicare pay cuts

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press

1 hr 16 mins ago

31 Obama lauds ‘inclusive’ Iraq govt amid frictions

By BUSHRA JUHI, Associated Press

Fri Nov 12, 12:46 pm ET

32 NFL, manufacturers agree there’s no perfect helmet

By HOWARD FENDRICH, AP Pro Football Writer

1 hr 12 mins ago

33 Airbus says bearing box failed in Rolls engine

By JANE WARDELL, Associated Press

Fri Nov 12, 1:40 pm ET

34 Innocence Project: Overhaul death penalty laws

By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press

36 mins ago

35 Witness: Cop said looters ‘deserved to be shot’

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press

29 mins ago

36 G-20 fallout: Trade barriers, tensions could rise

By PAUL WISEMAN, AP Economics Writer

37 mins ago

37 Asian Games begin amid light, water and flames

By JOHN PYE, AP Sports Writer

Fri Nov 12, 1:53 pm ET

38 Buick brings back Regal name

By ANN M. JOB, For The Associated Press

Fri Nov 12, 10:11 am ET

39 AWOL soldier returns on Veterans Day

By KRISTIN M. HALL, Associated Press

Fri Nov 12, 8:16 am ET

40 Transgender people find their voice at NC school

By MARTHA WAGGONER, Associated Press

Fri Nov 12, 7:00 am ET

41 Action, not talk: Deficit panel pushes Dems, GOP

By ANDREW TAYLOR and CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press

Fri Nov 12, 2:17 am ET

42 Obama spotlights failure of UN reform

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press

Thu Nov 11, 7:30 pm ET

43 Champion elm Herbie to be sold in artful pieces

By DAVID SHARP, Associated Press

Thu Nov 11, 5:46 pm ET

I scanned the recommended and recent diaries and found no entry for this.  I usually do not refer to The SOBber by his real name, but thought that it might be important to do so to get your attention.  Airing as I write this, the entire studio audience of the aforementioned show consist of uniformed Military Academy Cadets.

Something seems to be quite out of order for this to happen.  Whilst it might not be a violation of law, it certainly is a violation of good sense.  Several things come to mind.  Please follow below the fold.

First, The SOBber’s show is overtly political, even though he is not asking for donations for any particular candidate.  The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from appearing in an official capacity for overtly political reasons.  The restrictions on military personnel are even greater.

Second, I am sure that all of these cadets did not decide on their own that it was acceptable for them to appear on that show in uniform.  If any or all of them wanted to view from the live audience in civilian clothes, that would still be a little iffy but certainly more acceptable.

This begs the question:  who at the Military Academy authorized their appearances in uniform?  Or was it from someone even higher than the Commandant of the Military Academy?

Third, who thought that this was a good idea?  Obviously, someone did or they would not have been there, once again, in uniform (to add insult to injury, they are wearing little nametags that are not Academy regulation issue).

Forth, who is going to be reprimanded or have a career ended for this?  I would not take it out on the cadets, because I am almost positive that they have been either cleared or more likely ordered to appear.

Fifth, how were the particular cadets chosen to appear on the program?  The studio certainly is not large enough for even a single class, let alone the entire Academy.

Sixth, will it even make a single wave that this has happened?  I hope so.  There is something going on here, and unless at the end of the show the announcement is made that these were actors in costumes, something is really amiss.  It that announcement is made, I will update this post and apologize for wasting your time.

What do you think?

Warmest regards,

Doc

Crossposted at Docudharma.com and at Dailykos.com

“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”.

Jane Hamsher: Obama Twists Own Arm, Says “Uncle” to Extending Bush Tax Cuts

Political mastermind David Axelrod says the White House is ready to cave in the wake of imaginary overwhelming pressure to extend all of the Bush tax cuts, exacerbating the “deficit” problem they’ve been completely obsessed with:

President Barack Obama’s top adviser suggested to The Huffington Post late Wednesday that the administration was ready to accept an across-the-board continuation of steep Bush-era tax cuts, including those for the wealthiest taxpayers.

That appears to be the only way, said David Axelrod, that middle-class taxpayers can keep their tax cuts, given the legislative and political realities facing Obama in the aftermath of last week’s electoral defeat.

“We have to deal with the world as we find it,” Axelrod said during an unusually candid and reflective 90-minute interview in his office, steps away from the Oval Office. “The world of what it takes to get this done.”

Me or David Axelrod – one of us does not understand how congress works.

Lame duck.  Democrats still have the majority in the House. So they pass extensions for the middle class, excluding the ones for the wealthy.

Bill Quigley: Why George W. Bush Should Still Worry

Bush Pens True Crime Book, No Justice for CIA Destruction of 92 Torture Tapes

In his memoir (which some wise people have already moved in bookstores to the CRIME section) George W. Bush admitted that he authorized that detainees be waterboarded, tortured, a crime under US and international law.

Bush’s crime confession coincides with reports that no one will face criminal charges from the US Department of Justice for the destruction of 92 CIA videotapes which contained interrogations using waterboarding.

Where is the accountability for these crimes?  

Bush and other criminals will be brought to justice if the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) have their way.  

CCR and ECCHR jointly intervened into a criminal investigation in Spain examining the role of former civilian and military officials from the Bush administration in the commission of international law violations, including torture.  The investigation is ongoing and includes the crimes that Bush admitted he authorized.

John Nichols: The Fight Over Social Security’s Future Is On-But Which Side Is Obama On?

The debate about the future of Social Security has opened, and how progressives respond will decide whether the United States is a civil society or a pirate state where the government’s primary role is to take from the poor and give to the rich.

So far, the response has been mixed. The signals from the Obama White House are bad, with the president indicating openness to “compromises” that would compromise the legacies of the New Deal, the Fair Deal and the Great Society. In contrast, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, key Congressional Democrats, labor unions and activist groups are raising all the right objections.

Matthew Rothschild: Shame on Holder and Panetta for Not Going after CIA Destruction of Torture Evidence

If you’ve been a cynic all along, you win again.

I’m referring to the decision this week by the Justice Department not to go after a senior official of the CIA who ordered the destruction of dozens of videotapes of the torture of terrorism suspects.

Remember, this wasn’t a low-level operative of the CIA going off on some rogue mission.

This was the guy who, at the time, was head of the agency’s clandestine service. His name is Jose Rodriguez, and he ordered his staff to destroy the visual evidence, which included a taping of a detainee being waterboarded.

Rodriguez’s lawyer calls him “a hero and a patriot.” I call him a criminal and a creep.

And the Justice Department a bunch of cowards. Attorney General Eric Holder should be ashamed of himself.

Juan Cole: Obama in Asia: Meeting American Decline Face to Face

Blocked from major new domestic initiatives by a Republican victory in the midterm elections, President Barack Obama promptly lit out for Asia, a far more promising arena.  That continent, after all, is rising, and Obama is eager to grasp the golden ring of Asian success.

Beyond being a goodwill ambassador for ten days, Obama is seeking sales of American-made durable and consumer goods, weapons deals, an expansion of trade, green energy cooperation, and the maintenance of a geopolitical balance in the region favorable to the United States.  Just as the decline of the American economy hobbled him at home, however, the weakness of the United States on the world stage in the aftermath of Bush-era excesses has made real breakthroughs abroad unlikely.

Add to this the peculiar obsessions of the Washington power elite, with regard to Iran for instance, and you have an unpalatable mix.  These all-American fixations are viewed as an inconvenience or worse in Asia, where powerful regional hegemons are increasingly determined to chart their own courses, even if in public they continue to humor a somewhat addled and infirm Uncle Sam.

Laura Flanders: The F Word: Time to Stop Making Nice to Military

President Obama’s go-slow approach to ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” discrimination in the military has left repeal on life support in a lame-duck session of Congress.  Well thanks for nothing, Mr. President.

But it’s not just him. How about our justice strategy? As we mark another Veterans — or Armistice – Day,  with LGBT vets shut up and shut out, it’s time we called an Armistice on making nice to our military.

Dean Baker: Deficit Commission Proposals Ignores Reality, Threatens Recovery

Senator Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles appeared to have largely ignored economic reality in developing the proposals they presented to the public [on Wednesday].

The country is suffering from 9.6 percent unemployment with more than 25 million people unemployed, underemployed or who have given up looking for work altogether. Tens of millions of people are underwater in their mortgage and millions face the prospect of losing their home to foreclosure.

This situation is not the result of government deficits, contrary to what Mr. Bowles seemed to suggest at the co-chairs’ press conference today. The downturn was caused by the bursting of an $8 trillion housing bubble. This bubble was the basis of the construction and consumption demand that drove the economic expansion through 2007.  

E.J. Dionne Jr.: Democrats should hold their ground

In 2008, the largest number of voters in American history gave the Democrats their largest share of the presidential vote in 44 years and big majorities in the House and Senate.

How did Republicans react? They held their ideological ground, refused to give an inch to the new president and insisted that persistent opposition would eventually yield them victory. On Nov. 2, it did.

Yet now that Democrats have suffered a setback – in an election, it should be said, involving many fewer voters than the big battle two years ago – they are being counseled to do the opposite of what the Republicans did, especially by Republicans. . . .

Give Republicans credit for this: They don’t chase the center, they try to move it. Democrats can play a loser’s game of scrambling after a center being pushed ever rightward. Or they can stand their ground and show how far their opponents are from moderate, problem-solving governance. Why should Democrats take Republican advice that Republicans themselves would never be foolish enough to follow?

Narda Zacchino: Dishonoring Pat Tillman

Veterans were honored all across America Thursday, while the most famous veteran of our ongoing wars continues to be dishonored.

The case of Pat Tillman, whose death by friendly fire led to seven investigations, two books, two congressional hearings and a recently released documentary film, continues to vex, six years after he was killed at dusk on the unwelcoming rocky terrain of Spera, Afghanistan.

Tillman’s family and friends are no closer to learning the full truth about what happened in Pat’s death and its aftermath; they know only that he was killed by “friendly fire” (terribly unsuitable words for a horribly unfriendly act) and that there was a coverup of the circumstances of his death that reached the highest levels of the military and the Bush administration.  

David Weigel: Upsetting

Michael Bennet won a Senate race he should have lost. Can Democrats copy his strategy?

Ken Buck’s campaign for U.S. Senate from Colorado is already into trivia, another example of how the Tea Party screwed up a Republican win. It’s being forgotten too quickly. On paper, Buck’s loss to Sen. Michael Bennet made no sense.

Bennet, a soft-spoken bureaucrat who had never won an election before being appointed to the Senate, never cracked 50 percent in a public poll. Hours before the election, InTrade.com Buck a 60 percent chance of winning it. Larry Sabato, the election calculator that walks like a man, marked down Colorado as a probable Republican gain. And so on.

How did Bennet do this? Well, that’s easy. He had 1,900 volunteers on Election Day, he reached out to Hispanic voters, and he raised more money than his opponent, even when you added in the $5.1 million that American Crossroads spent against him. But some of this can be said about the Democrats who went down in the wave, too.