Sometimes, to persuade an ass, you need a 2 x 4.

Where’s the Democrats’ fighting spirit?

By Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post

Friday, November 12, 2010

“Why don’t they fight back?”

That’s the question I’ve been hearing from the Democratic Party’s stunned and dispirited base. For the past month, I’ve been on a book tour that has taken me to Asheville, N.C., Terre Haute, Ind., Austin and elsewhere. Everywhere I go, supporters of President Obama and his agenda ask me why so many Democrats in Washington don’t stand up for what they say they believe.

…

Now, which party holds the presidency and, until January, ample majorities in both houses of Congress? That would be the Democrats. Which party can point to public opinion polls indicating that Americans support its position that the Bush tax cuts should be extended only for the middle class? That, too, would be the Democrats. And finally, which party somehow appears to be looking for a way to lose this argument and capitulate? Incredibly, the Democrats.

The conventional wisdom in Washington is that those who say the lesson from last week’s drubbing is that progressives should get a spine simply “don’t get it.” The explanation given by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and some others – that aside from stubbornly high unemployment, one contributing factor was the Democrats’ failure to explain their program and counter Republican misinformation – is seen by the conventionally wise as delusional.

So how’s that river working out for you?

This is an apocryphal story, or at least I can’t be bothered to source it, but it goes something like this-

During the height of the Space Program a famous Astronaut was eating dinner at a restaurant when a waiter came by and spit in his soup.  Said the waiter-

Not everybody loves you babe.

So after his election “shellacking” his handlers hustled Barack Obama out on the road to revisit his adoring overseas crowds.  How’d that work out for you?

Traveling in Asia, Obama’s Glow Dims

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG, The New York Times

Published: November 12, 2010

Before leaving Washington for a 10-day diplomatic tour of Asia that he has characterized as an economic mission, Mr. Obama conceded that his relationship with the American people had come down from an “incredible high” and gotten “rockier and tougher” as time went on. But he said the same is not true of his relations with foreign leaders.

…

Mr. Obama seemed to stumble in Seoul. He failed to seal a deal with Mr. Lee on a long-awaited free-trade agreement, a serious setback for a president who has made doubling exports a centerpiece of his economic agenda. And his plan to even out global trade imbalances ran into resistance from Mr. Hu and Mrs. Merkel, among others. Mr. Obama chalked it up to international muscle-flexing.

It ain’t just a river babe.

We can only hope.  Or changiness, I forget which.

In my piece yesterday, Democratic Party Death Wish, TheMomCat added a chart by Kevin Drum of Mother Jones that illustrates the “deficit” problem.  It’s kind of small so I’m blowing it up (I apologize for the sacrifice in resolution).

In case you can’t see it so well there are 3 blue colored areas and one thick blue line.

• The light blue area at the bottom is labeled Other Federal Noninterest Spending
• The dark blue area in the middle is labeled Social Security
• The medium blue area at the top is labeled Medicare and Medicaid
• The thick blue line is labeled Revenues

The thick blue line cuts through the big Medicare and Medicaid area and makes it look like there are two of them, but it’s really just the one.

Is the Deficit Commission Serious?

By Kevin Drum, Mother Jones

Wed Nov. 10, 2010 8:46 PM PST

Here’s what the chart means:

• Discretionary spending (the light blue bottom chunk) isn’t a long-term deficit problem. It takes up about 10% of GDP forever. What’s more, pretending that it can be capped is just game playing: anything one Congress can do, another can undo. So if you want to recommend a few discretionary cuts, that’s fine. Beyond that, though, the discretionary budget should be left to Congress since it can be cut or expanded easily via the ordinary political process. That’s why it’s called “discretionary.”
• Social Security (the dark blue middle chunk) isn’t a long-term deficit problem. It goes up very slightly between now and 2030 and then flattens out forever. If Republicans were willing to get serious and knock off their puerile anti-tax jihad, it could be fixed easily with a combination of tiny tax increases and tiny benefit cuts phased in over 20 years that the public would barely notice. It deserves about a week of deliberation.
• Medicare, and healthcare in general, is a huge problem. It is, in fact, our only real long-term spending problem.

…

Bottom line: this document isn’t really aimed at deficit reduction. It’s aimed at keeping government small. There’s nothing wrong with that if you’re a conservative think tank and that’s what you’re dedicated to selling. But it should be called by its right name. This document is a paean to cutting the federal government, not cutting the federal deficit.

Now consider Krugman-

The Hijacked Commission

By PAUL KRUGMAN, The New York Times

Published: November 11, 2010

We’ve known for a long time, then, that nothing good would come from the commission. But on Wednesday, when the co-chairmen released a PowerPoint outlining their proposal, it was even worse than the cynics expected.

Start with the declaration of “Our Guiding Principles and Values.” Among them is, “Cap revenue at or below 21% of G.D.P.” This is a guiding principle? And why is a commission charged with finding every possible route to a balanced budget setting an upper (but not lower) limit on revenue?

Matters become clearer once you reach the section on tax reform. The goals of reform, as Mr. Bowles and Mr. Simpson see them, are presented in the form of seven bullet points. “Lower Rates” is the first point; “Reduce the Deficit” is the seventh.

…

(W)hat the co-chairmen are proposing is a mixture of tax cuts and tax increases – tax cuts for the wealthy, tax increases for the middle class. They suggest eliminating tax breaks that, whatever you think of them, matter a lot to middle-class Americans – the deductibility of health benefits and mortgage interest – and using much of the revenue gained thereby, not to reduce the deficit, but to allow sharp reductions in both the top marginal tax rate and in the corporate tax rate.

…

It’s no mystery what has happened on the deficit commission: as so often happens in modern Washington, a process meant to deal with real problems has been hijacked on behalf of an ideological agenda. Under the guise of facing our fiscal problems, Mr. Bowles and Mr. Simpson are trying to smuggle in the same old, same old – tax cuts for the rich and erosion of the social safety net.

My emphasis.

The truth is that the Catfood Commission wasn’t hijacked at all.  It was set up by Barack Hussein Obama and his Administration to produce exactly the results it did-

(T)his document isn’t really aimed at deficit reduction. It’s aimed at keeping government small. There’s nothing wrong with that if you’re a conservative think tank and that’s what you’re dedicated to selling. But it should be called by its right name. This document is a paean to cutting the federal government, not cutting the federal deficit.

To her credit here is Nancy Pelosi’s official take–

This proposal is simply unacceptable. Any final proposal from the Commission should do what is right for our children and grandchildren’s economic security as well as for our nation’s fiscal security, and it must do what is right for our seniors, who are counting on the bedrock promises of Social Security and Medicare. And it must strengthen America’s middle class families-under siege for the last decade, and unable to withstand further encroachment on their economic security.

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

November 12 is the 316th day of the year (317th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 49 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1775, Upon hearing of England’s rejection of the so-called Olive Branch Petition on this day in 1775, Abigail Adams writes to her husband, John:

The intelegance you will receive before this reaches you, will I should think make a plain path, tho a dangerous one for you. I could not join to day in the petitions of our worthy parson, for a reconciliation between our, no longer parent State, but tyrant State, and these Colonies. — Let us seperate, they are unworthy to be our Breathren. Let us renounce them and instead of suplications as formorly for their prosperity and happiness, Let us beseach the almighty to blast their counsels and bring to Nought all their devices.

The previous July, Congress had adopted the Olive Branch Petition, written by John Dickinson, which appealed directly to King George III and expressed hope for reconciliation between the colonies and Great Britain. Dickinson, who hoped desperately to avoid a final break with Britain, phrased colonial opposition to British policy as follows:

“Your Majesty’s Ministers, persevering in their measures, and proceeding to open hostilities for enforcing them, have compelled us to arm in our own defence, and have engaged us in a controversy so peculiarly abhorrent to the affections of your still faithful Colonists, that when we consider whom we must oppose in this contest, and if it continues, what may be the consequences, our own particular misfortunes are accounted by us only as parts of our distress.”

Abigail Adams’ response was a particularly articulate expression of many colonists’ thoughts: Patriots had hoped that Parliament had curtailed colonial rights without the king’s full knowledge, and that the petition would cause him to come to his subjects’ defense. When George III refused to read the petition, Patriots like Adams realized that Parliament was acting with royal knowledge and support. Americans’ patriotic rage was intensified with the January 1776 publication by English-born radical Thomas Paine of Common Sense, an influential pamphlet that attacked the monarchy, which Paine claimed had allowed “crowned ruffians” to “impoverish the nation and set it together by the ears.”

 764 – Tibetan troops occupy Chang’an, the capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, for fifteen days.

1028 – Future Byzantine empress Zoe marries Romanus Argyrus according to the wishes of the dying Constantine VIII.

1439 – Plymouth, England, becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.

1555 – The English Parliament re-establishes Catholicism.

1793 – Jean Sylvain Bailly, the first Mayor of Paris, is guillotined.

1847 – Sir James Young Simpson, a British physician, is the first to use chloroform as an anaesthetic.

1892 – William “Pudge” Heffelfinger becomes the first professional American football player on record, participating in his first paid game for the Allegheny Athletic Association.

1893 – The treaty of the Durand Line is signed between present day Pakistan and Afghanistan – the Durand Line has gained international recognition as an international border between the two nations.

1905 – Norway holds a referendum in favor of monarchy over republic.

1912 – The frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men are found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

1918 – Austria becomes a republic.

1920 – Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes sign the Treaty of Rapallo.

1927 – Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union.

1933 – Hugh Gray takes the first known photos of the Loch Ness Monster.

1936 – In California, the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.

1938 – Hermann Goring proposes plans to make Madagascar the “Jewish homeland”, an idea that actually is first considered by 19th century journalist Theodor Herzl.

1941 – World War II: The Soviet cruiser Chervona Ukraina is destroyed during the Battle of Sevastopol.

1942 – World War II: The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal between Japanese and American forces begins near Guadalcanal. The battle lasts for three days.

1944 – World War II: The Royal Air Force launches 29 Avro Lancaster bombers in one of the most successful precision bombing attacks of war and sinks the German battleship Tirpitz, with 12,000 lb Tallboy bombs off Tromsø, Norway.

1948 – In Tokyo, an international war crimes tribunal sentences seven Japanese military and government officials, including General Hideki Tojo, to death for their roles in World War II.

1956 – Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia join the United Nations.

1958 – A team of rock climbers led by Warren Harding completes the first ascent of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.

1968 – Equatorial Guinea joins the United Nations.

1968 – Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District argued before the Supreme Court.

1969 – Vietnam War: My Lai Massacre – Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the My Lai story.

1970 – The Oregon Highway Division attempts to destroy a rotting beached Sperm whale with explosives, leading to the now infamous “exploding whale” incident.

1970 – The 1970 Bhola cyclone makes landfall on the coast of East Pakistan becoming the deadliest tropical cyclone in history.

1971 – Vietnam War: As part of Vietnamization, US President Richard M. Nixon sets February 1, 1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam.

1975 – The Comoros joins the United Nations.

1978 – As Bishop of Rome Pope John Paul II takes possession of his Cathedral Church, the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

1979 – Iran hostage crisis: In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, US President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all petroleum imports into the United States from Iran.

1980 – The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes the first images of its rings.

1981 – Space Shuttle program: Mission STS-2, utilizing the Space Shuttle Columbia, marks the first time a manned spacecraft is launched into space twice.

1982 – In the Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov becomes the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party’s Central Committee, succeeding Leonid I. Brezhnev.

1982 – Lech Walesa, a Solidarity leader, is released from a Polish prison after eleven months.

1990 – Crown Prince Akihito is formally installed as Emperor Akihito of Japan, becoming the 125th Japanese monarch.

1990 – Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.

1991 – Dili Massacre, Indonesian forces open fire on a crowd of student protesters in Dili, East Timor.

1993 – Decree of President of Kazakhstan “About introducing national currency of Republic of Kazakhstan” is issued.

1996 – A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakh Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane collide in mid-air near New Delhi, killing 349. The deadliest mid-air collision to date.

1997 – Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

1998 – Vice President Al Gore signs the Kyoto Protocol.

1998 – Daimler-Benz completes a merger with Chrysler to form Daimler-Chrysler.

1999 – The Duzce earthquake strikes Turkey with a magnitude of 7.2 on the Richter scale.

2001 – In New York City, American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 en route to the Dominican Republic, crashes minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 on board and five on the ground.

2001 – Attack on Afghanistan: Taliban forces abandon Kabul, Afghanistan, ahead of advancing Afghan Northern Alliance troops.

2003 – Iraq war: In Nasiriya, Iraq, at least 23 people, among them the first Italian casualties of the 2003 Iraq war, are killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base.

2003 – Shanghai Transrapid sets up a new world speed record (501 kilometres per hour (311 mph)) for commercial railway systems.

2006 – The region of South Ossetia holds a referendum on independence from Georgia.

G-20 leaders not inclined to compromise

At the Group of 20 summit in Seoul, Obama’s effort to win consensus on a unified approach to boost the world economy appears doomed, raising the specter of countries pursuing their own interests.

By Christi Parsons, John M. Glionna and Don Lee, Los Angeles Times

November 12, 2010

Reporting from Seoul – President Obama appeared to fall short in his attempt to forge a unified approach to boosting the global economy as a frequently rancorous meeting of world leaders seemed set to conclude in Seoul on Friday without agreement on specific steps to avert damaging currency and trade wars.

Leaders of the world’s biggest economies showed that they were in no mood to compromise during the two-day summit. Instead, they were headed toward broad, general pledges that did little to mask their inability to find common ground for immediate action.

New evidence may write Lindbergh out of history as first to fly Atlantic

Research shows two French pilots made trip, but died on landing

By John Lichfield in Paris Friday, 12 November 2010

The greatest single mystery of the early days of aviation has been solved, according to French researchers.

The American pilot Charles Lindbergh was not the first person to fly the full width of the Atlantic in 1927, the researchers say. He was merely the first person to land his aircraft successfully, and the first to live to tell the tale.

Documentary evidence dredged from US official archives shows that two French pilots reached the Canadian coast from Paris 10 days before Lindbergh flew the Spirit of Saint Louis from New York to Le Bourget on on 20-21 May, 1927

USA

Foreclosure mess prompts growing number of public officials to slow down process

 

By Ariana Eunjung Cha

Washington Post Staff Writer

One month ago, the city of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs of Cook County became a foreclosure-free zone. It wasn’t the banks or judges that instituted the moratorium, because they were still moving cases forward at a rapid clip. The holdup was elsewhere: at the sheriff’s office. Sheriff Thomas J. Dart, whose office is responsible for physically evicting delinquent homeowners, announced Oct. 19 that his deputies would “no longer be doing the banks’ work for them anymore.”

“I can’t possibly be expected to evict people from their homes when the banks themselves can’t say for sure everything was done properly,” he explained.

To Congress With Mantra, ‘Why Not Me?



By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

Published: November 11, 2010  

MOLINE, Ill. – Bobby Schilling has spent the last decade perfecting his pizza crust. (The secret? A hint of whole wheat flour in the dough.) But this year, like dozens of other previously apolitical Americans, the cheerful father of 10 looked at the Congressional candidate arena and got to thinking, “Hey, why not me?”

Running as a Republican with little money in a district controlled by Democrats for decades, Mr. Schilling was initially received about as warmly as a stink bug. “The party folks in Washington were kind of like, ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ ” he said.  

Europe

Irish Debt Causing New Jitters Across Europe

Dublin’s Merkel Problem  

DER SPIEGEL

German Chancellor Angela Merkel doesn’t have many fans in Greece. Many in the Mediterranean country feel that Germany was aggressively accusatory earlier this year when it came to Athens’ severe national debt and budget deficit problems. Bitterness has only increased as tough austerity measures have taken hold.

Now, though, it would appear that Merkel’s popularity has plummeted in several more European countries, Ireland being chief among them. Ever since European Union leaders agreed in late October to a Berlin proposal that foresees the possibility of bankruptcy proceedings for euro zone countries — including potential losses for holders of sovereign bonds — interest rates have skyrocketed on those bonds. On Wednesday, Irish bond yields rose for the 12th day in a row — closing at 8.7 percent on Wednesday — indicating that investors are increasingly losing faith in the country’s ability to pay back debt.

EU safety regulator orders A380 engine inspection  

The European Union’s air safety regulator has issued an emergency order to inspect all Superjumbo A380 passenger jet engines after a Rolls-Royce turbine blew up on a Qantas flight last week.  

12.11.2010  

The order by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) confirms earlier indications from investigators that they suspect a turbine disc on Rolls-Royce engines was the cause of an explosion on the Qantas Airbus A380 jet.

“This condition, if not detected, could ultimately result in uncontained engine failure, potentially leading to damage to the airplane and hazards to persons or property on the ground,” EASA said in its emergency directive.

Middle East

Robert Fisk: How Lebanon can’t escape the shadow of Hariri’s murder



Five years after the former prime minister was killed, rising sectarian tensions and a teetering government are threatening a new conflict

Friday, 12 November 2010

I guess that you have to live here to feel the vibrations. Take last week, when I instinctively ducked on my balcony – so did the strollers on the Corniche – at the supersonic sound of an F-16 fighter aircraft flashing over the seafront and the streets of Beirut.

What message were the Israelis sending this time? That they do not fear the Hezbollah?

That they can humiliate Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri?

No relief from easing of Gaza blockade, says UN director  

The Irish Times – Friday, November 12, 2010  

MARK WEISS in Jerusalem  

THE SENIOR UN official in Gaza, John Ging, has said there has been “no material change” for the population of Gaza despite Israel easing restrictions in the summer.

Mr Ging, the Gaza director of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), told the BBC that nothing had changed for people on the ground “in terms of their status, the aid dependency, the absence of any recovery or reconstruction, [and] no economy”.

He said the easing of the Israeli blockade “has been nothing more than a political easing of the pressure on Israel and Egypt”.

Asia

UK fears North Korean attack on Seoul G20 summit

US has already urged China to use influence with the unpredictable dictatorship

Patrick Wintour in Seoul The Guardian, Friday 12 November 2010  

The British delegation is taking seriously the potential threat of an attack on the G20 summit by North Korea, whose border is just 50 miles away from the gathering in Seoul.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has already urged the Chinese to use their influence with the unpredictable dictatorship to discourage it from trying anything provocative during what is the most important diplomatic gathering ever on the Korean peninsula.

A diplomat said: “There has been speculation that the North Koreans will attempt some kind of disruptive incursion into South Korea.”

A date with destiny for Aung San Suu Kyi



Burma’s heroine could be just hours from freedom  

By Phoebe Kennedy in Rangoon and Andrew Buncombe

Friday, 12 November 2010  

At the offices of her beleaguered political party in the centre of Rangoon, loyal supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi were sweeping up the dust, hanging up banners and getting themselves ready. Perhaps they were hoping against hope, being led more by their hearts than their heads. If so, then so too were millions more people across Burma, and around the world.

Seven years after the jailed democracy leader was last made a prisoner in her own home, Ms Suu Kyi’s supporters were cautiously optimistic that tomorrow she may be finally released from house arrest. Some believe she could even be freed later this evening and that one of her sons may be there to greet her.

Africa

 Public urged to halt requests to Nelson Mandela

The Irish Times – Friday, November 12, 2010

DAVID SMITH in Johannesburg  

AIDES TO Nelson Mandela yesterday demanded a halt to the thousands of requests for autographs, endorsements and interviews in a plea interpreted by some as a veiled warning to the governing African National Congress (ANC) and others accused of hijacking the name.

The ANC was criticised last year for using the frail 92-year-old anti-apartheid leader at its final election campaign rally.

Mr Mandela’s most recent public appearance, on a bitterly cold night at July’s World Cup final in Johannesburg, was the result of “extreme pressure” from Fifa, according to his grandson.

Guinea delays election results





CONAKRY, GUINEA

Results were due to have been announced on Wednesday, 72 hours after the polls closed, but the electoral commission said that timeline would only commence once all the votes had been brought to the count centre in Conakry.

The commission’s chairperson, Siaka Sangare, said late on Wednesday that the commission had agreed with the Supreme Court the count should only be expected three days after the votes had been centralised.

Sangare said the electoral commission had received “many complaints and is making a point to examine them”.

Ignoring Asia A Blog

Broadcast?  Mostly premiers.

Lance Corporal Dawson, Private First Class Downey: On the charge of murder, the members find the accused not guilty. On the charge of conspiracy to commit murder, the members find the accused not guilty. On the charge of conduct unbecoming a United States Marine, the members find the accused guilty as charged. The accused are hereby sentenced to time already served, and you are ordered to be dishonorably discharged from the Marine Corps. This court martial is adjourned.

All rise.

What does that mean? What did we do wrong? We did nothing wrong.

Yeah, we did. We were supposed to fight for the people who couldn’t fight for themselves. We were supposed to fight for Willie.

• ABC Family– Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
• AMC– A Few Good Men
• Bravo– Real Housewives marathon (with premier)
• Disney– 16 Wishes
• E!– Little Miss Sunshine
• ESPN– College Throwball, Pittsburgh at Connecticut
• FX– It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The League (premiers)
• History– Aliens! (Season Premier)
• TBS– Fool’s Gold
• Turner Classic– Mogambo, The Barefoot Contessa (Ava Gardner night, not at all about Food)
• TNT– Hoopies, Celtics @ Heat (rematch of LeBron’s less that sterling debut), Lakers @ Nuggets
• Toon– Total Drama World Tour, Regular Show, MAD (this week’s repeats)
• USA– Burn Notice (Fall Premier)

“(Miami is) not a serious Basketball Town”- ESPN

Later-

• AMC– Hamburger Hill
• TV Guide– Weeds marathon (useless)
• Turner Classic– Bhowani Junction (more Ava)

Dave hosts Cher and Bruno Mars.  Jon has Rosario Dawson, Stephen Quincy Jones.  Conan Michael Cera, Julie Bowen, and Jon Dore.

All right, listen up. You people will not die on me in combat. You fucking new guys will do everything you can to prove me wrong. You’ll walk on trails, kick cans, sleep on guard, smoke dope and diddely-bop through the bush like you were back on the block. Or on guard at night you’ll write letters, play with your organ, and think of your girl back home. Forget her. Right now, some hair head has her on her back and is telling her to fuck for peace. This is Han. Those of you who are foolish will think of him as ‘gook,’ ‘slope,’ ‘slant’ or ‘dink.’ He is your enemy. He came over on the Chieu Hoi programme, and after he fattens himself on C-rations he will be hunting your young asses in the Ashau Valley. Now forget about this Viet Cong shit. What you’ll encounter out there is hard core NVA, North Vietnamese. Highly motivated, highly trained and well equipped. If you meet Han or his cousins, you will give him respect and refer to those little bastards as ‘Nathanial Victor.’ Meet him twice, and survive, and you will refer to him as ‘MISTER Nathanial Victor.’ Now people, I am sick and tired of filling body bags with your dumb fucking mistakes.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Bomb hits police in Pakistani city of Karachi, kills 18

by Hasan Mansoor, AFP

10 mins ago

2 Iraq takes first step to form government amid MPs’ walk-out

by Prashant Rao, AFP

29 mins ago

3 Iraq rivals seal power-sharing deal

by Sammy Ketz, AFP

Thu Nov 11, 8:34 am ET

4 Currency disputes dominate G20 summit

by Park Chan-Kyong, AFP

32 mins ago

5 More cholera deaths in Haiti capital

by Clarens Renois, AFP

Thu Nov 11, 1:16 pm ET

6 Haiti capital battles arrival of cholera

by Clarens Renois, AFP

Wed Nov 10, 6:35 pm ET

7 Acrimony as EU budget negotiations collapse

by Roddy Thomson, AFP

1 hr 28 mins ago

8 Russia taps foreigners to cure Winter woes

by Alexander Fedorets, AFP

Thu Nov 11, 10:27 am ET

9 Boeing halts test flights of delay-plagued 787 Dreamliner

by Delphine Touitou, AFP

Wed Nov 10, 6:43 pm ET

10 Art attracts fish in underwater Mexican museum

by Sophie Nicholson, AFP

Thu Nov 11, 1:12 pm ET

11 Ancient Rome’s biggest temple reopens

by Ella Ide, AFP

Thu Nov 11, 12:52 pm ET

12 Irish bond rates hit record highs, fanning debt crisis fears

by Andrew Bushe, AFP

Thu Nov 11, 8:20 am ET

13 G20 grapples with formula to ease currency strains

By David Ljunggren and Zhou Xin, Reuters

Thu Nov 11, 1:17 pm ET

14 South Korea, U.S. fail to resolve trade deal row

By Patricia Zengerle and Jack Kim, Reuters

Thu Nov 11, 9:00 am ET

15 Iraq breaks impasse as Maliki to form government

By Suadad al-Salhy and Waleed Ibrahim, Reuters

4 mins ago

16 Top Russian spy defects after betraying ring in U.S.

By Thomas Grove, Reuters

1 hr 15 mins ago

17 Obama tells North Korea to end "belligerence"

By Patricia Zengerle and Alister Bull, Reuters

Thu Nov 11, 6:27 am ET

18 Ireland says surge in borrowing costs "very serious"

By Carmel Crimmins, Reuters

Thu Nov 11, 10:14 am ET

19 Deficit panel targets Social Security and taxes

By Donna Smith and Jeff Mason, Reuters

Wed Nov 10, 5:46 pm ET

20 Boeing halts 787 flights as emergency landing probed

By John Crawley and Kyle Peterson, Reuters

Wed Nov 10, 7:39 pm ET

21 Lockheed F-35 fighter in deficit panel’s sights

By Jim Wolf, Reuters

Wed Nov 10, 8:00 pm ET

22 Iraq breaks deadlock, PM wins support for new term

By Suadad al-Salhy and Waleed Ibrahim, Reuters

Wed Nov 10, 5:29 pm ET

23 Special Report: Can this committee save the world from bankers?

By Huw Jones, Reuters

Wed Nov 10, 7:45 am ET

24 Specter of trade war looms as G-20 nations gather

By JEAN H. LEE and PAUL WISEMAN, Associated Press

33 mins ago

25 Sunni walkout mars Iraq parliament session

By BUSHRA JUHI and BARBARA SURK, Associated Press

1 hr 12 mins ago

26 2014 is the new date to watch in Afghanistan

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press

1 hr 14 mins ago

27 Big ideas for cutting deficit, but they’d hurt

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press

1 hr 14 mins ago

28 Holiday shopping battle starts to get pitched

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, AP Retail Writer

1 hr 47 mins ago

29 DNA test casts doubt on executed Texas man’s guilt

By JEFF CARLTON, Associated Press

4 mins ago

30 Obama’s runs into the limits of his power in Asia

By BEN FELLER, AP White House Correspondent

38 mins ago

31 Bomb rocks Pakistan’s largest city killing 15

By SHAKIL ADIL, Associated Press

1 hr 48 mins ago

32 Companies yank cord on residential phone books

By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM, AP Business Writer

Thu Nov 11, 2:06 pm ET

33 Mortgage rates fall to fresh lows this week

By JANNA HERRON, AP Real Estate Writer

2 hrs 14 mins ago

34 Why Fed bond-buying plan is raising trade tensions

By PAUL WISEMAN, AP Economics Writer

Thu Nov 11, 1:39 pm ET

35 Woods in the mix after opening round in Australia

By DOUG FERGUSON, AP Golf Writer

Thu Nov 11, 1:31 pm ET

36 US homes lost to foreclosure drops 9 pct in Oct.

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Real Estate Writer

Thu Nov 11, 7:05 am ET

37 Regulator: Oil fire may have caused A380 problem

By ROHAN SULLIVAN and JOAN LOWY, Associated Press

Thu Nov 11, 12:50 pm ET

38 Coziness between jails, ICE worries immigrants

By DEEPTI HAJELA, Associated Press

1 hr 10 mins ago

39 Health official: ‘Obamacare’ was once ‘Romneycare’

By CARLA K. JOHNSON, AP Medical Writer

2 hrs 19 mins ago

40 Razor-thin margins could bring gridlock to Oregon

By JONATHAN J. COOPER, Associated Press

2 hrs 57 mins ago

41 Obama joke about Slurpee Summit inspires 7-Eleven

By MICHAEL HILL, Associated Press

Thu Nov 11, 12:41 pm ET

42 Skelton fears ‘chasm’ between military, citizens

By DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press

Thu Nov 11, 11:53 am ET

43 Neb. abortion doctor to practice where laws permit

By JOSH FUNK, Associated Press

Wed Nov 10, 8:32 pm ET

44 DeLay interview with prosecutors played for jury

By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press

Wed Nov 10, 7:37 pm ET

45 Title IX complaints filed for 12 school districts

By RACHEL COHEN, AP Sports Writer

Wed Nov 10, 7:11 pm ET

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Back in January of 2009, Dahlia Lithwick of Slate wrote in the NYT Op-Ed

INSTEAD of looking closely at what high-level officeholders in the Bush administration have done over the past eight years, and recognizing what we have tacitly permitted, we would rather turn our faces forward toward a better future, promising that 2009 and the inauguration of Barack Obama will mean ringing out Guantanamo Bay and ringing in due process; it will bring the end of waterboarding and the reinstatement of the Geneva Conventions.

And America tends to survive the ugliness of public reckonings, from Nixon to Whitewater to the impeachment hearings, because for all our cheerful optimism, Americans fundamentally understand that nobody should be above the law. As the chief prosecutor for the United States at the Nuremberg trials, Robert Jackson, warned: “Law shall not stop with the punishment of petty crimes by little people. It must also reach men who possess themselves of great power.”

(emphasis mine)

The Obama administration intentionally chose to not just turn its back on the evidence but to use the power of the executive to hide it. The Justice Department under Eric Holder a has let an investigation into the destruction of taped evidence of torture to languish and has announced that there will be no charges.

Ms Litwick in her latest article at Slate, chronicles baby steps that have taken the United States from decrying torture to celebrating it. In it she point out President Obama’s lack of understanding of the consequences of ignoring the Bush administration war crimes

President Barack Obama decided long ago that he would “turn the page” on prisoner abuse and other illegality connected to the Bush administration’s war on terror. What he didn’t seem to understand, what he still seems not to appreciate, is that what was on that page would bleed through onto the next page and the page after that. There’s no getting past torture. There is only getting comfortable with it. The U.S. flirtation with torture is not locked in the past or in the black sites or prisons at which it occurred. Now more than ever, it’s feted on network television and held in reserve for the next president who persuades himself that it’s not illegal after all.

Now, apparently feeling emboldened by the Obama deference and complicity, George W. Bush is proudly proclaiming in his “cowboy-fashion” that he approved and authorized the use of illegal torture techniques. Bush has been all over the media spewing lies about his claims to have kept

“America safe” by torturing which have been debunked long ago.

By covering up torture evidence and allowing those who destroyed the taped evidence, Obama and Holder are shielding war criminals which according to the Nuremberg Principles is a war crime.

The conclusion of Ms. Litwick’s article, she sums up the consequences:

Those of us who have been hollering about America’s descent into torture for the past nine years didn’t do so because we like terrorists or secretly hope for more terror attacks. We did it because if a nation is unable to decry something as always and deeply wrong, it has tacitly accepted it as sometimes and often right. Or, as President Bush now puts it, damn right. It spawns a legal regime that cannot be contained in time or in place; a regime that requires that torture testimony be used at trials and that terror policies be from public scrutiny. It demands the shielding of torture photos and the exoneration of those who destroyed torture tapes just a day after the statute of limitations had run out. Indeed, as Andrew Cohen notes, when the men ordering the destruction of those tapes are celebrated as “heroes,” who’s to say otherwise? Check, please.

All this was done in the name of moving us forward, turning down the temperature, painting over the rot that had overtaken the rule of law. Yet having denied any kind of reckoning for every actor up and down the chain of command, we are now farther along the road toward normalizing and accepting torture than we were back in November 2005, when President Bush could announce unequivocally (if falsely) that “The United States of America does not torture. And that’s important for people around the world to understand.” If people around the world didn’t understand what we were doing then, they surely do now. And if Americans didn’t accept what we were doing then, evidently they do now. Doing nothing about torture is, at this point, pretty much the same as voting for it. We are all water-boarders now.