(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

This is no laughing matter. The Obama Justice Department is defending the worst Attorney General, John Ashcroft, from being sued by an American citizen whose Constitutional rights were clearly violated by AG Ashcroft’s stated policy to use the material witness law to prevent terror attacks by rounding up Muslim immigrants.

Last night on Countdown with Keith Olbermannn, Constitutional Law Professor, Jonathan Turley discussed the Prosecuting of John Ashcroft and the ramifications of a possible decision favoring the Obama administration’s support of abuse of the law by Ashcroft.

Jonathan Turley:

The amazing thing about this case is that there is an old expression of bad cases making bad law. This is a case of a bad guy making a bad law. They’re going to have to pitch this to the heart of the court to support one of the most abusive Attorney Generals in history. What will be left is truly frightening.

This is a case, as you have mentioned, where false statements were given to a Federal court to secure a warrant, a person was held without access to a lawyer, was held in highly abusive conditions and you have an Attorney General who was virtually gleeful during that period about his ability to round up people. This was at a time when material witness rationale was being used widely and rather transparently to simply hold people.

Smith, the judge, wrote a really incredible opinion, one of the better opinions I’ve read in the last ten years and he basically noted st the end, this is what the Framers fought against. And he right, we have become what the Framers fought against. What it is we defined ourselves against, this is what the Framers were talking about, arbitrary detention.

And my God, you have the Obama Administration arguing that you cannot hold an Attorney General liable for such an egregious and horrible act.

Turley:

. . . The Obama administration knows it has an excellent chance of creating this new precedent, and when you pile it up, it is truly frightening. The administration has already said it will not investigate torture. It has been said they will nor prosecute torture. It has already dismissed dozens of cases, including cases of victim torture. Now they are saying that even people who order abuses, that clearly knew they were abuses, cannot be held liable. And you are left with this curious seed of an Obama official expressing concern on why liberals are so lethargic in this elections, like it’s something that we said.

Yeah, it is, this is a truly – this is not a disappointing act by this administration. I gotta tell you, I find it a disgusting act to try to create this kind of precedent. I promise you this precedent will bear a horrible fruit and this will be repeated because of what President Obama and his administration are going to do before this court.

Olbermann:

Do I have this correct? In essence, te reason there is a case against Ashcroft, or Attorney General in this case, is because he announced beforehand, he was going to stretch the material witness law and then stretched it, that it is premeditated?

Turley:

Well, what the court here said was you knew this was illegal. This was well established law. So you went out and broke the law and now you come to us and say but I can never be sued at any time under th sun. That is the precedent again that President Obama may soon be establishing.

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

October 19 is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 73 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1781, hopelessly trapped at Yorktown, Virginia, British General Lord Cornwallis surrenders 8,000 British soldiers and seamen to a larger Franco-American force, effectively bringing an end to the American Revolution.

The Siege of Yorktown or Battle of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisive victory by combined assault of American forces led by General George Washington and French forces led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis. It proved to be the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War  in North America, as the surrender of Cornwallis’s army prompted the British government eventually to negotiate an end to the conflict.

In 1780, 5,500 French soldiers landed in Rhode Island to assist their American allies in operations against British-controlled New York City. Following the arrival of dispatches from France that included the possibility of support from the French West Indies fleet of the Comte de Grasse, Washington and Rochambeau decided to ask de Grasse for assistance either in besieging New York, or in military operations against a British army operating in Virginia. On the advice of Rochambeau, de Grasse informed them of his intent to sail to the Chesapeake Bay, where Cornwallis had taken command of the army. Cornwallis, at first given confusing orders by his superior officer, Henry Clinton, was eventually ordered to make a defensible deep-water port, which he began to do at Yorktown, Virginia. Cornwallis‘s movements in Virginia were shadowed by a Continental Army force led by the Marquis de Lafayette.

The French and American armies united north of New York City during the summer of 1781. When word of de Grasse‘s decision arrived, the combined armies began moving south toward Virginia, engaging in tactics of deception to lead the British to believe a siege of New York was planned. De Grasse sailed from the West Indies and arrived at the Chesapeake Bay at the end of August, bringing additional troops and providing a naval blockade of Yorktown. He was transporting 500,000 silver pesos collected from the citizens of Havana, Cuba, to fund supplies for the siege and payroll for the Continental Army. While in Santo Domingo, de Grasse met with Francisco Saavedra de Sangronis, an agent of Carlos III of Spain. De Grasse had planned to leave several of his warships in Santo Domingo. Saavedra promised the assistance of the Spanish navy to protect the French merchant fleet, enabling de Grasse to sail north with all of his warships. In the beginning of September, he defeated a British fleet led by Sir Thomas Graves that came to relieve Cornwallis at the Battle of the Chesapeake. As a result of this victory, de Grasse blocked any escape by sea for Cornwallis. By late September Washington and Rochambeau arrived, and the army and naval forces completely surrounded Cornwallis.

After initial preparations, the Americans and French built their first parallel and began the bombardment. With the British defense weakened, Washington on October 14, 1781 sent two columns to attack the last major remaining British outer defenses. A French column took redoubt #9 and an American column redoubt #10. With these defenses taken, the allies were able to finish their second parallel. With the American artillery closer and more intense than ever, the British situation began to deteriorate rapidly and Cornwallis asked for capitulation terms on the 17th. After two days of negotiation, the surrender ceremony took place on the 19th, with Cornwallis being absent since he claimed to be ill. With the capture of over 8,000 British soldiers, negotiations between the United States and Great Britain began, resulting in the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

 202 BC – Second Punic War: At the Battle of Zama, Roman legions under Scipio Africanus defeat Hannibal Barca, leader of the invading Carthaginian army.

439 – The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, take Carthage in North Africa.

1216 – King John of England dies at Newark-on-Trent and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry.

1453 – The French recapture of Bordeaux brings the Hundred Years’ War to a close, with the English retaining only Calais on French soil.

1466 – The Thirteen Years War ends with the Second Treaty of Thorn.

1469 – Ferdinand II of Aragon marries Isabella I of Castile, a marriage that paves the way to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single country, Spain.

1512 – Martin Luther becomes a doctor of theology (Doctor in Biblia).

1649 – New Ross town, Co. Wexford, Ireland, surrenders to Oliver Cromwell.

1781 – At Yorktown, Virginia, representatives of British commander Lord Cornwallis handed over Cornwallis’ sword and formally surrendered to George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau.

1789 – Chief Justice John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States.

1812 – Napoleon I of France retreats from Moscow.

1813 – The Battle of Leipzig concludes, giving Napoleon Bonaparte one of his worst defeats.

1822 – In Parnaiba; Simplício Dias da Silva, Joao Cândido de Deus e Silva and Domingos Dias declare the independent state of Piaui.

1864 – Battle of Cedar Creek – Union Army under Philip Sheridan destroy the Confederate Army under Jubal Early.

1864 – St. Albans Raid – Confederate raiders launch an attack on Saint Albans, Vermont from Canada.

1873 – Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.

1904 – Polytechnic University of the Philippines founded as Manila Business School through the superintendence of the American C.A. O’Reilley.

1912 – Italy takes possession of Tripoli, Libya from the Ottoman Empire.

1914 – The First Battle of Ypres begins.

1917 – The Love Field in Dallas, Texas is opened.

1921 – Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Granjo and other politicians are murdered in a Lisbon coup.

1933 – Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.

1935 – The League of Nations places economic sanctions on fascist Italy for its invasion of Ethiopia.

1943 – Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.

1944 – United States forces land in the Philippines.

1950 – The People’s Liberation Army takes control of the town of Qamdo; this is sometimes called the “Invasion of Tibet”.

1950 – Korean War: After the Chinese leadership finally settled the issue of armed intervention on October 18, the People’s Republic of China joins the Korean War by sending thousands of troops across the Yalu river to fight United Nations forces.

1959 – The first discotheque opens.

1969 – The first Prime Minister of Tunisia in twelve years, Bahi Ladgham, is appointed by President Habib Bourguiba.

1973 – President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court decision that he turn over the Watergate tapes.

1974 – Niue becomes a self-governing colony of New Zealand.

1976 – Battle of Aishiya in Lebanon.

1983 – Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada, is overthrown and executed in a military coup d’etat led by Bernard Coard.

1986 – Samora Machel, President of Mozambique and a prominent leader of FRELIMO, and 33 others die when their Tupolev 134 plane crashes into the Lebombo Mountains.

1987 – In retaliation for Iranian attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy disables three of Iran’s offshore oil platforms.

1987 – Black Monday – the Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 22%, 508 points.

1989 – The convictions of the Guildford Four are quashed by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, after they had spent 15 years in prison.

2001 – SIEV-X, an Indonesian fishing boat en-route to Christmas Island, carrying over 400 asylum seekers, sinks in international waters with the loss of 353 people.

2003 – Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II.

2004 – Myanmar prime minister Khin Nyunt is ousted and placed under house arrest by the State Peace and Development Council on charges of corruption.

2004 – Care International aid worker Margaret Hassan is kidnapped in Iraq.

2005 – Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.

2005 – Hurricane Wilma becomes the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum pressure of 882 mb.

2007 – Philippines. Amidst corruption controversies hounding the Arroyo administration, a bomb explosion rocked Glorietta 2, a shopping mall in Makati. The blast killed 11 and injured more than 100 people.

Flight delays cost passengers $16.7 billion

FAA-funded study factors in time lost, secondary travel arrangements

By JOAN LOWY

WASHINGTON – Airline flight delays cost passengers more than inconvenience – $16.7 billion more – according to a study delivered to the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday.

The FAA-funded study looks at the cost to passengers for flight delays in 2007, the latest year for which complete data was available when researchers began working on the study.

Unlike past studies of the impact of flight delays, researchers looked more broadly at the costs associated with flight delays, including passengers’ lost time waiting for flights and then scrambling to make other arrangements when flights are canceled.

Making the cut at sushi academy

Tokyo school serves up an English course

 By ERIKO ARITA

Staff writer

Ahmed Bishara clasps a vinegared rice ball in his hand and quickly pastes wasabi on a slice of raw salmon on the cutting board before him. He puts the rice ball on the salmon, turns it upside-down and presses it tightly into shape with his palm and fingers. The entire process takes about 10 seconds.

Bishara wets his hands and tackles his next piece of nigirizushi (hand-pressed sushi), this time using a slice of kanpachi (amberjack). After three minutes his time is up. He arranges the 18 nigirizushi on his cutting board and awaits his teacher’s verdict.

USA

U.S. Pushes to Ease Technical Obstacles to Wiretapping



By CHARLIE SAVAGE

Published: October 18, 2010

WASHINGTON – Law enforcement and counterterrorism officials, citing lapses in compliance with surveillance orders, are pushing to overhaul a federal law that requires phone and broadband carriers to ensure that their networks can be wiretapped, federal officials say.

The officials say tougher legislation is needed because some telecommunications companies in recent years have begun new services and made system upgrades that create technical obstacles to surveillance. They want to increase legal incentives and penalties aimed at pushing carriers like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast to ensure that any network changes will not disrupt their ability toconduct wiretaps

Foreclosure freeze leads to uneasy politics for Democrats

 

By Steven Mufson

Washington Post Staff Writer  

The details of the foreclosure mess are ugly and complicated. The politics of it are even worse.

The calculus is clear for most Democratic incumbents, especially those in tight races like Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid: Nothing could be worse on the eve of elections than images of people being booted out of their homes by big banks that have relied on sloppy, if notfraudulent, paperwork.

Europe

Germany’s neighbours from hell

The village of Jamel in east Germany was once a place of rural bliss. Then neo-Nazis started buying it up. Tony Paterson reports

Tuesday, 19 October 2010

It’s hard to escape the menacing ideology that prevails in Jamel – a tiny hamlet of 10 crumbling red brick Prussian-era farm houses set among the remote fields and beech woods of east German Mecklenburg. “Braunau am Inn 855 kilometres” proclaims a home-made signpost at the village entrance pointing in the direction of Adolf Hitler’s birthplace.

At a sandy crossroads between the houses, a huge stone carries the slogan: “Jamel Village Community: Free, Social and National” – the choice of adjectives is as close to the term “National Socialist” as one can legally get in a country where the swastika and Nazi slogans remain outlawed.

Sarkozy defies French strikers on pension reform

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has insisted he will press ahead with pension reforms despite a gathering momentum of strike action.  

The BBC

Oil refineries have been shut for a week, hundreds of petrol stations have run dry and a further day of national strikes is under way.

Mr Sarkozy says reform is “essential” and “France is committed to it”.

But with the Senate due for a final vote this week, protests are planned in more than 200 towns and cities.

The French government wants to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 and the full state pension age from 65 to 67.

But the plans are widely unpopular with the public and left-wing senators have submitted hundreds amendments in an attempt to delay the vote.

Although the bill was initially expected to be passed on Wednesday, some reports say the debate could last until the weekend.

Middle East

Kurdish rebels tell Turkey: keep your promises or ceasefire is over



By Catrina Stewart in the Qandil mountains, northern Iraq Tuesday, 19 October 2010

Kurdish rebels will end their military ceasefire at the end of the month if Turkey hounds its supporters and prepares for an attempt to rout the group after 26 years of conflict, their leader told The Independent from his mountain hideout in northern Iraq.

Murat Karayilan said time was running out for the Turkish authorities to pursue a peaceful solution amid suspicions that Turkey was drumming up support from Syria and Iran to rout the guerrilla group, which has entrenched itself in the mountains along Iraq’s border with Turkey and Iran.

The Dangers of Being a Journalist in Iran

Tehran’s Press Offensive

By Dieter Bednarz, Markus Brauck and Antje Windmann

Mohammad Ghouchani, 34, is still a free man. But he may not be for much longer. The Iranian regime’s security forces have been following the journalist’s every move for weeks now. According to Ghouchani’s colleagues in Tehran, it was only a week ago that Iranian agents called him on the phone. Their message? Drop the project or we’ll arrest you.

Few would be surprised were Ghouchani soon to be served a subpoena from the state prosecutor and forced to answer charges before the Islamic Revolutionary Court. Jail time, experience shows, could also be in his future — all because he has taken on a tempting and delicate mission: He plans to resume publishing Ham-Mihan, a newspaper that was bannedthree years ago..

Asia

Pakistan intelligence services ‘aided Mumbai terror attacks’

Militant arrested last year described dozens of meetings between ISI officers and senior Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives

Jason Burke

guardian.co.uk

Pakistan’s powerful intelligence services were heavily involved in preparations for the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2008, according to classified Indian government documents obtained by the Guardian.

A 109-page report into the interrogation of key suspect David Headley, a Pakistani-American militant arrested last year and detained in the US, makes detailed claims of ISI support for the bombings.

Under questioning, Headley described dozens of meetings between officers of the main Pakistani military intelligence service, the ISI, and senior militants from the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group responsible for the Mumbai attacks.

Xi Jinping on Track for Chinese Presidency  

 

Seoul October 19, 2010

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping has been appointed vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, which oversees the two-million-strong People’s Liberation Army, virtually confirming his position as the country’s next leader. The Chinese Communist Party appointed Xi to the new position in a planning meeting, the state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday.

The four-day session of the party’s Central Committee, which opened on Friday, also saw the announcement of a five-year economic development plan that puts more focus on the distribution of wealth rather than on economic expansion. The Chinese government is now expected to bolster social benefits, aid for senior citizens, state medical programsand other subsidies.

Africa

Corrupt east African nations ‘running global crime’  



Dylan Welch NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT

October 19, 2010

GLOBAL mafias are using corrupt nations in east Africa to run their syndicates and the area is now a ”hole in the wall” in the international fight against organised crime, says the former head of Britain’s top police unit.

William Hughes, the former director-general of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, made the comment in an address to an organised crime conference in Melbourne yesterday, in which he called for more international co-operation in tackling transnational crime.

Somali militants ban mobile money transfers

Ban comes after firms closed doors on al Shabaab – govt

   By Ibrahim Mohamed, Reuters  

The al Shabaab group, which professes loyalty to al Qaeda, said mobile money transfers (MMT) helped feed Western capitalism and were turning Somalia’s Muslims against Islamic banking practices.

“The use of the MMT service will be discontinued in all parts of Somalia – and the companies that offer these services, specifically Hormuud, Telesom and Golis, must stop dealing with this service,” al Shabaab said in a ststatement on Sunday..

Latin America

After Rescue, The Fight for Compensation Begins

Millions for Chilean Miners?  

By Juan Moreno

Edgardo Reinoso Lundstedt didn’t go to work today. It’s a good day to stay home, he thinks. It’s morning and Reinoso, a calm man, is standing on his large patio enjoying the Pacific breeze.

There is no evidence here of the drama unfolding 800 kilometers (500 miles) away.

Rain is in the forecast, so Reinoso won’t be firing up the grill today, not with this weather. He turns on the TV set and sees the same images he has been seeing for weeks. The whole of Chile is in the grips of a media frenzy. The 33 miners who had been trapped in a mine near Copiapó in northern Chile are being rescued today. Chilean President Sebastian Piñera is at the scene, together with about 2,000 international journalists, curious onlookers, the miners’ families, clowns, police officers and members of the clergy.

Ignoring Asia A Blog  

(10 am – promoted by ek hornbeck)

President Obama, aka Bush, is making sure that telecommunications companies are ensuring that their networks can be wiretapped. Change? LMAO

U.S. Pushes to Ease Technical Obstacles to Wiretapping

WASHINGTON – Law enforcement and counterterrorism officials, citing lapses in compliance with surveillance orders, are pushing to overhaul a federal law that requires phone and broadband carriers to ensure that their networks can be wiretapped, federal officials say

The officials say tougher legislation is needed because some telecommunications companies in recent years have begun new services and made system upgrades that create technical obstacles to surveillance. They want to increase legal incentives and penalties aimed at pushing carriers like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast to ensure that any network changes will not disrupt their ability to conduct wiretaps.

An Obama administration task force that includes officials from the Justice and Commerce Departments, the F.B.I. and other agencies recently began working on draft legislation to strengthen and expand a 1994 law requiring carriers to make sure their systems can be wiretapped. There is not yet agreement over the details, according to officials familiar with the deliberations, but they said the administration intends to submit a package to Congress next year.

Never mind “1984”, we may as well be living in the USSR.

Well, not you and me particularly, but with some historical figures.  This was sort of spurred by Keith Olbermann’s story about Michele Bachmann’s list of people with whom she would like to have dinner.  I could not imagine a dinner with only six to eight folks, including me, wherein I could meet everyone that I would want, so I have set up a series of dinners with diverse groups of folks that I would love to get to know.  By the way, K.O. will be in a future installment if there is enough interest in this series.

Tonight’s installment will include a dinner with physicists (or their historical counterparts) that are both living and dead.  Here are my rules:  1) I am not personally acquainted with anyone mentioned (a chance meeting, like on a flight does not count), 2) within certain limits, only a maximum of eight people can attend.  More than that would make highly interactive conversation difficult, and 3) there is no language barrier.

As a bit of entertainment first, here is Rick Nelson with Garden Party.  Just substitute the word “Dinner” for “Garden” and you will get it about right.

For my physicists dinner party, using actual people, I would really enjoy the following company:  Archimedes, Aristotle (just for the rest of us to torment him), Sir Issac Newton, Benj. Franklin, Marie and Pierre Curie (I count married couples as one), Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking.  For this exercise, Professor Hawking can also eat.

We would start out in the afternoon with some cheese, simple crackers, and nice, light German wine, just to stimulate conversation.  I thing that Stilton would be the cheese of choice, with some celery salt and Zatarian’s Creole mustard with the crackers.  We would get to know each other during those two hours, with just light banter.

I shall not bore you with the details of the conversations, but suffice it to say that Aristotle was pretty much taken down to the silly position that he deserves.  To a person, we all condemned him for setting back science with silly, nonexperimentalist, and speculative ideas that only seemed to explain the facts.  Since he was only recently brought to our time, he actually showed a bit of remorse for getting things so, so wrong.  It all seemed so logical to him.

Dr. Franklin said it best.  “Young man, logic is no substitute for knowledge, and your “knowledge” was superficial.  You made perfectly good logical conclusions based on false premises.  I can indeed forgive you for making logical conclusions, but I blame you for almost fifteen centuries of darkness because of your blind acceptance of false premises, any number of which could have been disproved it you had only gotten off of your arse and conducted a few, simple experiments.  But you preferred to speculate about fact.  For this, I can not forgive you.”

Professor Hawking was bit more merciful.  In his synthesized voice, he made this statement, “Sir, you speculated about many things that you did not know.  I have done similar things, and have been incorrect many times.  The difference is, I believe, that I have the advantage of having over 2000 years of empirical and theoretical information that you did not have.  I can not condemn you, because you were using the best information that you had at the time.  However, I do agree with Dr. Franklin that you set back human understanding for centuries because of your authority.  Erroneous conclusions are often accepted because of authority, and you were the greatest one until Galileo made his discoveries.  You, sir, are responsible for him being excommunicated and to live under what was essentially house arrest until his death.  But I do not condemn you.”

The Curies offered this, “When we started on our discoveries, only Henri and Wilhelm had an any idea about what were seeking.  (They were making references to Henri Becquerel and Wilhelm Konrad von Roentgen for their discoveries of natural radioactivity and X-rays, respectively, and knew both of them).  We were able to find the common source for these things, but not completely.  We wish that the professors Schrodinger and Heisenberg were invited, but Translator set his table too sparsely.  He is not that good of a host, since we dead folks can come back for discussion.”

I had to step in then.  “Friends, please realize that this is a dinner party, not a scientific meeting.  I appreciate all of you being here, but if we had one hundred visionaries, dinner would be a very noisy affair.”

Professor Einstein chose to speak, after he loaded his pipe.  (At my table during dessert, smoking is acceptable.  Just not during the main course).  As he lit it, I smelled a scent that was not tobacco at all.  Now I understood how he got his insights.  “As I see it, all of us are trying to figure out how the universe works, from the very small to the very large.  We really have very sparse data to show it.  I think that I was just lucky that the eclipse was timed exactly right for me to illustrate General Relativity.  If it had not been for that, I would have been little more than a raving lunatic.  But I know this:  the things that we accept as sound theory or even fact are contaminated with our perceptions of reality.  I think that Gott puts a haze over our eyes and minds, to keep the real story away from us until we cross over to another realm.”

Sir Issac, never a patient person, shot up then.  “By the living God, all of you speak nonsense!  I have information that none of you EVER will have, thanks to Sion, but I can tell you this!  Give me bodies with mass and gravity, and I can tell you where they will be 1000 years from now!”  He stamped his foot loudly.  “Everything can be calculated!”  Of course, I had been slipping him a supply of applejack, a favorite British drink, with a good amount of alcohol.

Just then the telephone rang, and Professor Heisenberg wanted to address the people.  “Issac, I have deep respect for you, but you are wrong.  You look at the very large, and I look at the very small.  There comes a point where merely observing something changes it, so things are uncertain.  Listen to Albert.  He figured out why the orbit of Mercury does not follow your physics.  I am at the bar with Louis and Paul (Louis De Broglie and Paul Adrian Marice Dirac), and Translator was kind enough to put the webcam and microphone so that we could hear and see all of you.  Aristotle, I think that you are outvoted.  Nice try to make sense of things, but without experiments, you could not succeed.  Your culture sort of make that so, however.”

We could overhear Werner Heisenberg taking a question from Louis as Neils came back from the restroom, “Werner, can you buy me another beer?  I am uncertain if I have enough money for another one.”  OK, geeks, jump on this joke.

I chimed in, “Thanks for all of you to make your thoughts known.  I think that we have beaten Aristotle up enough for one night.  He seems to like the German wine, and has had about nine glasses.  I do not think that he will be a threat to learning for several centuries.”  Both the dinner party and the remote bar folks burst out with laughter.  I continued, “Well, he was just a man, but one with very wrong ideas.  He used logic very well to “prove” incorrect things.  Logic is a two edged sword, and if your “facts” are incorrect, your conclusions are apt to be as well.  Hey, where is Antoine?”  Just then my cell phone rang.  Antoine Lavoisier was calling from Paris.  “Hello, Doc?  I am sorry that I could not make the party tonight, but I am very confused.  Sometimes I think that I am losing my head!”  “OK, buddy, get some sleep and breathe a bit of that azote to make you get sleepy.”

Archimedes finally spoke.  “Eureka, this barbarian wine is wonderful!”  Then he sort of collapsed.  I regretted that we could not hear more from him, but there will be more dinners, reader interest allowing.

Well, it was getting late and all of us were tired, but fired up with the discussion.  Aristotle actually apologized for misleading the western world for almost two millennia, and we all forgave him.  He did the best that he could at the time.  Unfortunately, my dinner parties are coordinated with a certain Doctor, and he allows me to have them as long as the time line can never be changed, and that none of us remember anything at all about them.  I seem to be a bit immune from his telepathy, so I can write my experiences here before I forget them.  The Doctor does finally wipe my memory, but not instantly.  As a matter of fact, I remember going places with him, but that is a completely different story.  I like that guy.  I want to have dinner with all 12 of him soon, along with his many companions.  That would be a feast!

Please let me know what you think about this extremely experimental piece of writing.  I enjoyed composing it, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating of it.  I hope that everyone gets a nice, tasty bite.  There are infinite variations, and perhaps, if there is enough interest, I could cover a topic and group of people that you like.

If you can come up with a scenario similar with this, please post it in the comments.

Warmest regards,

Doc

Crossposted at Docudharma.com and at Dailykos.com

I understand a Senior League team was victorious in a sporting competition.  Hopefully the listings give you some idea where to switch so yu don’t have to listen to God Bless America all the time.  I’m not yet despairing of my brackets,  The Phillies showed almost Yankee like offensive powers last night.  This Series is pitching matched up, so you get the best pitcher against the best and so on.  Tuesday will be the third game in the series and it will be interesting to see how each offense performs against the ‘not so good’ pitcher.

Of course it’s the third game in the Junior League tonight and as you’ll recall the Yankees started their Ace first game, but the Rangers had to wait until tonight for theirs which means he’ll probably only pitch the once.  Once being of course in the first game in Yankee Stadium.  Lee has impressive statistics.  Opposed by Pettite who really is only the third best.  Again I think it comes down to offense in which I think the Rangers are less good.  If they can solve Pettite and put it away they’re likely to win.  If it’s close- everyone on the Yankees can hit.

But while it would ruin my 5 game prediction it doesn’t alter my opinion of the ultimate outcome.  Means the Yankees need to win on the road again and they’ve already shown they can do it.

Postseason ace vs. October pro in Game 3 of ALCS

By MIKE FITZPATRICK, AP Sports Writer

50 mins ago

NEW YORK – Cliff Lee’s left arm has been the most dominant force in baseball during the past two postseasons. Now, all that October success has earned him another matchup with the New York Yankees.

“They’re basically an All-Star team. From top to bottom, they have threats everywhere,” Lee said. “I’m not going to get intimidated.”

With the best-of-seven AL championship series tied at one apiece, the scene shifts to Yankee Stadium for Game 3 on Monday night, when a pair of pressure-proven pitchers will be back in the spotlight.

Broadcast premiers.  

• ABC Family– Mean Girls, Good Burger
• AMC– Friday the 13th & 2 x 2
• Bravo– New Real Housewives
• Discovery– Sr. v Jr. repeats (this year’s)
• ESPN– Throwball, Titans at Jaguars
• ESPN2– World Series of Poker (this week’s)
• Food– Unwrapped, Best Thing I Ever Ate (premiers)
• FX– Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
• History– Pawn Stars (2 premiers)
• Lifetime– The Two Mr. Kissels x 2
• Oxygen– Definitely, Maybe x 2
• Spike– Blade: Trinity x 2
• Turner Classic– Oliver!
• TLC– New Cake Boss
• Toon– Regular Show, MAD, Total Drama World Tour (premiers)
• Vs.– Avalanche @ Rangers (the hockey kind)

Later-

• FX– 30 Days of Night
• Sci Fi– Friday the 13th: The Series
• Turner Classic– The Black Stallion, Almost Famous
• USA– The Bourne Ultimatum x 2

No Dave.  No Jon or Stephen.  Or rather repeats from 9/21, 10/12, and 10/12.  Fortunately there is double Alton, Oats 2 and 1.

Boondocks– Series Premier A Huey Freeman Christmas.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Cars burned, fuel short in France pensions protest

by Roland Lloyd Parry, AFP

50 mins ago

2 France seeks to calm fuel fears as strike momentum builds

AFP

Sun Oct 17, 3:14 pm ET

3 Burning cars, tear gas in France pensions protests

by Rory Mulholland, AFP

2 hrs 10 mins ago

4 Roads blocked as French pension protests escalate

by Rory Mulholland, AFP

Mon Oct 18, 6:42 am ET

5 UN calls for immediate action to save life on Earth

by Kyoko Hasegawa, AFP

Mon Oct 18, 7:56 am ET

6 France, Germany offer hand to Russia at seaside summit

by Philippe Alfroy, AFP

32 mins ago

7 Europe gets ‘cold feet’ over debt clampdown

by Roddy Thomson, AFP

Mon Oct 18, 12:43 pm ET

8 IMF chief warns recovery ‘in peril’

by D’Arcy Doran, AFP

Mon Oct 18, 8:37 am ET

9 No Contador, nor Armstrong as 2011 route looms

by Justin Davis, AFP

Mon Oct 18, 12:09 pm ET

10 List of art works looted by Nazis goes online

by Paola Messana, AFP

Mon Oct 18, 1:09 pm ET

11 Rescued Chilean miners hold emotional reunion

by Maria Lorente, AFP

Mon Oct 18, 3:20 am ET

12 Obama on nationwide blitz with vote two weeks off

by Olivier Knox and Stephen Collinson, AFP

Sun Oct 17, 4:00 pm ET

13 Study predicts women in power, Muslims heading West

by Karin Zeitvogel, AFP

Sun Oct 17, 5:30 pm ET

14 FIFA probing World Cup vote corruption report

by Rob Woollard, AFP

Sun Oct 17, 1:24 pm ET

15 Accused Oceania chief to cooperate with FIFA probe

by Neil Sands, AFP

Mon Oct 18, 2:36 am ET

16 Irish glass-making city shattered by economic crisis

by Frederic Pouchot, AFP

Sun Oct 17, 4:22 pm ET

17 China-Japan row simmers on after weekend protests

by Harumi Ozawa, AFP

Mon Oct 18, 8:07 am ET

18 Pentagon bracing for new WikiLeaks release

by Olivia Hampton, AFP

Mon Oct 18, 3:16 am ET

19 French protests intensify, government stands firm

By Brian Love, Reuters

1 hr 6 mins ago

20 France taps fuel reserves as strike hits pumps

By Muriel Boselli and Valerie Parent, Reuters

Mon Oct 18, 12:26 pm ET

21 Pentagon braces for huge WikiLeaks dump on Iraq war

By Phil Stewart, Reuters

Mon Oct 18, 10:47 am ET

22 Terrorism, cyber attacks top UK security threats

By Mohammed Abbas and Rhys Jones, Reuters

Mon Oct 18, 1:25 pm ET

23 Russia seeks answers on NATO from French, Germans

By John Irish, Reuters

1 hr 16 mins ago

24 Japan PM wants China to ensure citizens’ safety

By Kiyoshi Takenaka, Reuters

Mon Oct 18, 5:44 am ET

25 Chile’s rescued miners close ordeal with ceremony

By Terry Wade and Juana Casas, Reuters

Sun Oct 17, 5:22 pm ET

26 Cracks appear in Chile miners’ ‘pact of silence’

By Simon Gardner and Terry Wade, Reuters

Mon Oct 18, 10:39 am ET

27 ECB’s Trichet rejects Weber view on bond buying

By James Mackenzie, Reuters

Sun Oct 17, 2:29 pm ET

28 French strikes hit airlines, trucking, gas pumps

By ANGELA DOLAND and GREG KELLER, Associated Press Writers

34 mins ago

29 NATO claims it is choking off insurgents’ supplies

By KATHARINE HOURELD, Associated Press Writer

Mon Oct 18, 1:16 pm ET

30 Report: Facebook apps transmitted personal info

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer

47 mins ago

31 NFL may start suspending players for violent hits

By BARRY WILNER, AP Pro Football Writer

10 mins ago

32 CPR switch: Chest presses first, then give breaths

By JAMIE STENGLE, Associated Press Writer

Mon Oct 18, 6:34 am ET

33 A productive Congress gets no respect from voters

By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer

Mon Oct 18, 12:47 pm ET

Beltway Bullshit.

34 AP Interview: CG admiral asks for Arctic resources

By MARK THIESSEN, Associated Press Writer

Mon Oct 18, 6:35 am ET

35 China VP’s promotion a sign succession on track

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

Mon Oct 18, 11:34 am ET

36 New online resource debuts for Nazi-era looted art

By CRISTIAN SALAZAR and RANDY HERSCHAFT, Associated Press Writers

Mon Oct 18, 6:34 am ET

37 Secret donations and gift tax – a new conundrum

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer

36 mins ago

38 Obama targets key groups in election’s homestretch

By JULIE PACE, Associated Press Writer

Mon Oct 18, 12:41 am ET

39 Pa. man to give $1K for each jobless worker hired

By PATRICK WALTERS, Associated Press Writer

Sun Oct 17, 9:30 pm ET

40 White courts Democratic base in Texas gov’s race

By JAY ROOT, Associated Press Writer

Mon Oct 18, 1:12 pm ET

41 Huckabee granted clemency to killer despite record

Associated Press

Mon Oct 18, 1:05 am ET

42 Trying to win Pakistani trust, 1 flight at a time

By KIMBERLY DOZIER, Associated Press Writer

Mon Oct 18, 12:01 am ET

43 Navajo closer than ever to electing woman leader

By FELICIA FONSECA, Associated Press Writer

Sun Oct 17, 8:44 pm ET

Starting a new blog is a funny endeavor. Why do it? People ask about mission statements and intentions and they want to know: what will this accomplish?

Honestly, I don’t know. This might be the very first time in my life that I have no expectations. I don’t know what this place will become. I have no set idea on what is success and what is failure.

In fact, this isn’t even my blog. I’ve funded it, but I don’t own it. Ownership seems hard to claim in a venture so open to other people’s ideas and vision shaping and driving it.

Perhaps it is a bit experimental: I’m curious what evolves from chaos: there are few rules, no boss, and an eclectic group of writers, poets, musicians, and thinkers who may find themselves here from time-to-time.

For me, this is about finding a way to influence an entire planet in thousands of small and profound ways. But these are my own intentions and I do not speak on behalf of the others who may join in here. I can only tell you I am looking for ways to break communication barriers, discover common ground, and reclaim options over how this life thing goes forward.

With that said, I’d like to make some very necessary acknowledgments.

Ha! Opening night at a blog. I remember the first time I experienced that rush. It was at Docudharma, my mother blog. It was really where I grew up as a blogger and it will always be, in some sense, home.

Thanks, buhdydharma, for inviting me to your lively, demanding, and special space and for giving me a place there. Some of you and what I learned from you is in the mix at writing in the rAw

Not everyone is lucky enough to have an ek hornbeck in their blogging life. He was something of a guide when I arrived as a newbie at Daily Kos. He taught me blog manners and the meaning of fierce (in a good way). Certainly, something of ek and what I learned from him are part of WITR. Mostly, you can find him over there, at The Stars Hollow Gazette.

Ahhhh… Daily Kos. Where many of us started blogging and connecting and believing we could, networked and plugged in, change the world.

In some ways, dKos has changed the world. Many of us who started there have scattered like seedlings throughout the blog0sphere, sprouting new sites, innovating blog radio, blog TV, and an incredibly dynamic platform for politicians, pundits, and prognosticators… amazingly, many wonderful authentic voices have also made it on this stage. I’ve found that, indeed, surfing this seemingly endless internet highway is a real trip.

The real surprises in all of these blogging years are the friends made… we’ve met in Paris, Boston, a Connecticut diner, the countryside of North Carolina… and there are those who keep promising they will visit… these are the ones who’ve kept me going. Hugs and kisses to masslass, riaD, jessical, and undercovercalico.

As for Edger, well what can I say? His technical help and expertise were invaluable. He put a lot of work into this site and put up with 1000s of e-mails from me. He was patient and kind and innovative. I’m sure SoapBlox will never be the same… but it will be certainly better.

Last but not least there’s keirdubois. He has no idea how he saved me. i’ve been blue lately. BP slayed me, had me reeling, feeling completely out of control and almost willing to let life roll all over me. out of nowhere, kd saw my powerpoint made blog and asked if he could work on it a bit… and he gave this beautifully edgy design. i am still blown away. cosmic. really.

There is, I realize, one last acknowledgment: to teh bloggers. Everywhere, of every stripe, opinion, and perspective. I hope some of you will bring writing in the rAw to life with your energy…

The Huffington Post Investigation Fund (dot org) is reporting that major Wall Street Banksters and Hedge Funds are getting into the kind of get rich quick real estate scams you normally find in a late night infomercial.

This particular confidence game is to purchase the right to collect back taxes, fees, and liens from cash strapped local governments at discounts on the dollar and then sick their high retainer, temporarily idle, forclosure departments on the homeowners to run up fees, fines, and forclosures.

I’ll quote it as I would any article of similar length, they allow crossposting but the embed code violates too many rules.

The New Tax Man: Big Banks And Hedge Funds

By Fred Schulte and Ben Protess, Huffington Post Investigative Fund

First Posted: 10-18-10 08:28 AM Updated: 10-18-10 09:40 AM

Nearly a dozen major banks and hedge funds, anticipating quick profits from homeowners who fall behind on property taxes, are quietly plowing hundreds of millions of dollars into businesses that collect the debts, tack on escalating fees and threaten to foreclose on the homes of those who fail to pay.

…

In exchange for paying overdue real estate taxes, the investors gain legal powers from local governments to collect the debt and levy fees. At first, property owners may owe little more than a few hundred dollars, only to find their bills soaring into the thousands. In some jurisdictions, the new Wall Street tax collectors also chase debtors over other small bills, such as for water, sewer and sidewalk repair.

…

Years ago, the big banks left the buying of tax liens largely to local real estate specialists and small-time investors. These days, banks and hedge funds, stung by the failure of many speculative investments, see tax liens as a relatively safe option that can yield returns of around 7 percent.

Some banks also are packaging tax liens as securities – in a similar way to how unpaid home loans are securitized – and selling them to investors.

If mortgage holders fail to pay overdue taxes, an investor could waltz off with a home worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for the price of paying the owner’s tax bill. Most homeowners eventually pay their debt.

…

Some two dozen states and the District of Columbia allow tax sales, which spare the governments from added expenses of hiring their own debt collector, or foreclosing and becoming a landlord. Local governments generally require minimal identification – for instance, a Social Security number. They allow bidders to choose whatever names they wish, and don’t check to see if bidders are using multiple identities.

In the Middle Ages this was called Tax Farming.

“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.

Paul Krugman: Rare and Foolish

Last month a Chinese trawler operating in Japanese-controlled waters collided with two vessels of Japan’s Coast Guard. Japan detained the trawler’s captain; China responded by cutting off Japan’s access to crucial raw materials.

And there was nowhere else to turn: China accounts for 97 percent of the world’s supply of rare earths, minerals that play an essential role in many high-technology products, including military equipment. Sure enough, Japan soon let the captain go.

I don’t know about you, but I find this story deeply disturbing, both for what it says about China and what it says about us. On one side, the affair highlights the fecklessness of U.S. policy makers, who did nothing while an unreliable regime acquired a stranglehold on key materials. On the other side, the incident shows a Chinese government that is dangerously trigger-happy, willing to wage economic warfare on the slightest provocation.

Sherrod Brown: For Our China Trade Emergency, Dial Section 301

TEN years ago this fall the Senate sold out American manufacturing. By a vote of 83 to 15, it established so-called permanent normal trade relations with China, paving the way for that country to join the World Trade Organization. As a result, Chinese imports to the United States fell under the same low tariffs and high quotas as those from countries like Canada and Britain.

Today, though, our trade relations with China are anything but normal. The 2000 agreement’s proponents insisted it would enable a billion Chinese consumers to buy American products. Instead, our bilateral trade deficit has increased 170 percent, largely because China has undermined free-market competition through illegal subsidies and currency manipulation.

Unless the administration takes punitive steps in response to China’s unfair trade practices, the American economy – and the American worker – will continue to suffer.

Sherrod Brown, a Democratic senator from Ohio, is a member of the President’s Export Council and the author of “Myths of Free Trade.”

Glenn Greenwald: How propaganda is disseminated: WikiLeaks Edition

This is how the U.S. government and American media jointly disseminate propaganda: in the immediate wake of some newsworthy War on Terror event, U.S. Government officials (usually anonymous) make wild and reckless — though unverifiable — claims. The U.S. media mindlessly trumpets them around the world without question or challenge. Those claims become consecrated as widely accepted fact. And then weeks, months or years later, those claims get quietly exposed as being utter falsehoods, by which point it does not matter, because the goal is already well-achieved: the falsehoods are ingrained as accepted truth.

I’ve documented how this process works in the context of American air attacks (it’s immediately celebrated that we Killed the Evil Targeted Terrorist Leader who invariably turns out to be alive and then allegedly killed again in the next air strike], while the [dead are always, by definition, “militants”); with covered-up American war crimes, with the Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman frauds — the same process was also evident with the Israeli attack on the flotilla — and now we find a quite vivid illustration of this deceitful process in the context of WikiLeaks’ release of Afghanistan war documents. . . .

John Nichols: Obama is Wrong, the Republicans are Right

The Obama administration’s Department of Justice is seeking to overturn the world-wide injunction against enforcment of the noxious “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. . . .

There have been lots of objections. But the loudest complaints are coming from Republicans. Not, unfortunately, all Republicans. But the Log Cabin Republicans — the gay and lesbian group that secured the injunction from a federal judge — are mounting the defense of the injunction. . . .

The Log Cabin lawyer is right: legally, logically and morally. The Department of Justice does have a responsibility to enforce the law, even when the law is objectionable. But it does not have a responsibility to defend a policy that a federal judge has soundly and unequivocally identified as an assault on the Constitution that violates the basic premises of a free and just society.

Tom Brokaw: The Wars That America Forgot About

IN what promises to be the most contentious midterm election since 1994, there is no shortage of passion about big issues facing the country: the place and nature of the federal government in America’s future; public debt; jobs; health care; the influence of special interests; and the role of populist movements like the Tea Party.

In nearly every Congressional and Senate race, these are the issues that explode into attack ads, score points in debates and light up cable talk shows. In poll after poll, these are the issues that voters say are most important to them this year.

Notice anything missing on the campaign landscape?

How about war? The United States is now in its ninth year of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, the longest wars in American history. Almost 5,000 men and women have been killed. More than 30,000 have been wounded, some so gravely they’re returning home to become, effectively, wards of their families and communities.

Fareed Zakaria: When North Korea falls . . .

SEOUL The most important lesson to have come out of the financial crisis is to worry about “black swans.” These are, in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s formulation, events that are unlikely but with the potential to cause major disruption. In geopolitics there is one such event that should have us all thinking hard — the collapse of North Korea.

Most of Washington’s attention has been devoted to the Pyongyang regime’s small nuclear arsenal. But perhaps a more likely scenario, and possibly one that would be even more disruptive, is a meltdown of the regime.

New York Times Editorial: In Climate Denial, Again

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has to be smiling. With one exception, none of the Republicans running for the Senate – including the 20 or so with a serious chance of winning – accept the scientific consensus that humans are largely responsible for global warming.

The candidates are not simply rejecting solutions, like putting a price on carbon, though these, too, are demonized. They are re-running the strategy of denial perfected by Mr. Cheney a decade ago, repudiating years of peer-reviewed findings about global warming and creating an alternative reality in which climate change is a hoax or conspiracy.

E.J. Dionne Jr.: GOP’s election strategy lets others do its dirty work

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. The Republican Party is running a three-level campaign this year that gives its candidates a wealth of advantages — in flexibility, deniability and determination.  

At the first level are the party’s candidates, who can be as reasonable or as angry, as moderate or as conservative, as their circumstances require.

Next come the outside groups that refuse to disclose their donor lists. They are doing the dirty work of pounding their Democratic opponents in commercials for which no one is accountable. The Republican candidates can shrug an innocent “Who, me?” Deniability is a wonderful thing.

Joe Conanson: NPR poll: Republican midterm tide has crested

A new national survey of battleground districts strongly suggests that the Democrats aren’t quite dead just yet

While Democrats must still expect to lose dozens of House seats and several Senate seats on November 2, the earlier trend toward a massive Republican landslide may have been arrested, according to the latest NPR Battleground Poll  released Friday. Conducted jointly by Democratic pollster Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and Republican pollster Public Opinion Strategies, the NPR survey of voters in 96 most hotly contested districts indicates significant narrowing of the Republican lead since the public radio network’s last midterm survey in June.

Still warning of a likely shift in control of the House, the NPR polling team says that while the midterm is still “an ugly election” in the 86 Democratic-controlled districts that they surveyed, this election should no longer be considered a “death march” for Democrats. Their analysis highlights four important new developments:

First, in ten “battleground” House districts currently held by Republicans, the latest numbers suggest that the GOP will “lose a fair number” of those seats bedause their lead has been cut in half since June.

Joan Walsh: If Sarah Palin falls in a forest?

The GOP star is touring California, but no major Republican candidates are turning out for her

It’s strange to be aware that Sarah Palin is in California and no one I know seems to care much about it. Sure, my crowd is mostly Democrats, but I’m also thinking about GOP senate candidate Carly Fiorina and our would-be governor Meg Whitman. Both said they had other engagements this weekend — they’re washing their hair? — and that’s particularly hurtful coming from Fiorina. Palin’s May endorsement helped shore up the former HP CEO’s standing with party right-wingers, since Fiorina was a McCain surrogate in the state, and a real Tea Party candidate, Chuck DeVore, was in the race.

But Fiorina told reporters she wouldn’t be with Palin this weekend: “There are lots of people who’ve endorsed me that I don’t appear with.” Wow, that’s worse than Alaska GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller’s diss of Palin. I think Fiorina should expect some nasty mis-spelled email from Todd Palin, if not a moose-head in her bed.

Robert Cornwell: Crumbling America has a $2.2 trillion repair bill

Out of America: The US needs to update its roads, railways and airports – but recession and a shift to the right have put big infrastructure projects in jeopardy.

First, a tale of two rail tunnels. One of them is in Switzerland – the 35-mile Gotthard Base tunnel, the cutting of which was completed on Friday amid great national rejoicing, and which, when it opens for business in 2017, will be the longest of its kind in the world. It will have cost $10bn (£6.2bn), representing $1,300 of taxpayer’s money for every citizen in the land of William Tell. But it will bestow huge benefits not only on Switzerland, but on north-south freight and passenger traffic for all Europe.

The other rail tunnel is (or rather was) in New Jersey, and would have linked the Garden State to Manhattan, vastly improving clogged access to New York City, with long-term economic benefits to match. The project, 20 years in the planning, would have cost around $9bn, or roughly $1,000 for each inhabitant of one of the richest states in the US.

Alas, it is not to be. A few days ago, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey announced his state was pulling out, in effect dooming the tunnel even though digging has started and $500m has already been spent. The cost was simply too high, he declared; in these cash-strapped times, New Jersey had better things to spend its money on. And so you start to understand the silent crisis that is undermining America: the creeping decay of its public infrastructure.