Happy Friday.

Happy Labor Day weekend.

Because a wet day at the lake...beats a dry day in the office.

Anyday.

Percolated.

Clear Lake, Wisconsin
Hometown of Gaylord Nelson and Burleigh Grimes

They shoot horses, don't they?

And we don't need the ladies,

crying cause the story's sad...

Susan Estrich, Michael Vick CON

"Michael wishes to apologize again to everyone who has been hurt by this matter," Billy Martin said this week, referring to his celebrity client, dog killer Michael Vick.

Does that include the eight dogs he killed and the countless others he abused? Does it include the ones placed on treadmills, whose jaws were pried open with sticks or those that were fastened to the "rape stand," a device found on Vick's property to hold down female dogs so they could be forced to breed?
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I hope the judge throws the book at him. I hope the NFL bans him forever.
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It is what this says about the man that troubles me.

Whenever a pit bull comes into the local park where I take my two much-loved beauties, Judy Jarvis Estrich and Molly Emily Estrich, the other dog owners and I carefully scrutinize its owners. American Staffordshire terriers, as some call them, can be wonderful pets if properly trained. Or not. It only takes a minute or two to tell the difference, and it totally depends on how the owner has raised them. It's not the dog's fault; it's the owners'. Michael Vick is the worst of the worst.

He doesn't understand what sport is, which is why he should never be allowed to play in the pros again. I understand personal weaknesses of players and appreciate the pressures of competitive sports. When an athlete resorts to steroids or uses drugs, he obviously brings shame to the team and the league. But in such cases, he is hurting himself, not innocent animals that depend on him. Vick's crime is of a far more vicious sort, revealing a character for which there can be no excuse and no forgiveness.
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The NFL says it will continue to investigate Vick's conduct in relation to its own code of conduct. The Atlanta Falcons, the team paying him all that money, is withholding judgment, waiting to see if the plea, in the words of Falcons owner Arthur Blank, will allow Vick "to get this behind him as quickly as he can."

As far as many of us who are pet owners and animal lovers are concerned, he will never get this behind him. Nor should he.

...
Patrick Reusse, Michael Vick rehabilitation PRO

Robert Byrd, the 89-year-old Democrat from West Virginia, is the longest-serving member of the United States Senate in history. On July 19, he took to the floor of that distinguished body to comment on the dogfighting allegations against Michael Vick and his cronies. "Barbaric!" Byrd shouted, while also pumping his first. "Let that word resound from hill to hill, and from mountain to mountain, and valley to valley across the broad land. Barbaric! May God help those poor souls who'd be so cruel. Barbaric!"
...
Certainly, it's nauseating to read details of this dogfighting culture, but I think we're being as naive about this as we were about steroids in 1998 when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were staging the home run race. Then, we wanted to believe the mammoth home runs we were seeing were the results of diligent offseason workouts, and now we want to believe Vick and his pals are more villainous than tens of thousands of other dogfighters in this country.

Remember the dogfighting episode we had in Chisago County four summers ago? Law enforcement officials walked in on the fights at a farm. Tommie McClellan and Neal Burton both pled guilty to the felony of cruelty to animals involving fights. McClellan paid a fine of $750 and Burton of $500. Their sentences were suspended and they were placed on five years of probation.

Vick's operation was much bigger -- more dogs, higher stakes -- but it is puzzling how dogfighting has gone from a dirty little secret with modest punishment to the Crime of the New Millennium because of Vick's involvement.
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The idea that the Michael Vicks of the world would take another breed of dog and torture it into fighting for its life is barbaric, as the old senator from West Virginia bellowed last month. But why is it that dogfighting has been taking place in urban alleys and in backwoods barns forever and nearly all of the culprits have been allowed to get off with a little more than a stern warning? And now it's Michael Vick, so he's headed to federal prison?

Everyone involved in dogfighting is a sick puppy -- not just Vick. He'll have a year in a cell to think about that. And then Goodell should forget the grandstanding and allow Vick to return to the NFL immediately.

Mushroom soup for the soul.

Now thematically, this fits in with the previous post, but some things are just themes, best left unconsumed.

I've been making pizzas here, with the help of thin crusts, sauce and cheese from Fraboni's. Roma tomatoes thinly sliced, green onions, mushrooms, and peppers some from the garden. We picked the right day, Wednesday, to travel; it was warm and summery come mid-day, the only one minus showers or maybe I just outmaneuvered them travelling mid state.

Now if you're an educated mushroom hunter, surely this is the weather for you. Every variety, and some true beauties peeking up out of the earth. I wished I'd brought my camera, but some things are best left unphotographed except in our minds for now. Appreciated most definitely, but like with Mondays, I've no problems with the rain and damp. Irish like that.

The Great Unknown.

The best part of nature is that which you stumble upon, undeniably there, yet not predictable in the previous patterns mapped. Even when it turns out to be nothing.

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON - Astronomers have stumbled upon a tremendous hole in the universe. That's got them scratching their heads about what's just not there. The cosmic blank spot has no stray stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark matter. It is 1 billion light years across of nothing. That's an expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness, a University of Minnesota team announced Thursday.

Astronomers have known for many years that there are patches in the universe where nobody's home. In fact, one such place is practically a neighbor, a mere 2 million light years away. But what the Minnesota team discovered, using two different types of astronomical observations, is a void that's far bigger than scientists ever imagined.

"This is 1,000 times the volume of what we sort of expected to see in terms of a typical void," said Minnesota astronomy professor Lawrence Rudnick, author of the paper that will be published in Astrophysical Journal. "It's not clear that we have the right word yet ... This is too much of a surprise."

Now that's a wrap.

What a classy and dignified recovery job: they got the job done, and brought all 13 of them in. No big talking, no false promises or cruel hope, just a determination to bring everybody home they could. Such a blessing in troubled times. It somehow feels like turning a corner. To God goes the glory. Thank you for prayers answered. Amen.

By Patrick Condon, Associated Press
Last update: August 20, 2007 – 10:15 PM

Crews have found the body of the last person missing after the Interstate 35W bridge collapse, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner announced Monday. The confirmed death of Gregory Jolstad, 45, of Mora, brings the death toll from the Aug. 1 bridge collapse to 13.

----------------------

By La Velle E. Neal III,
Star Tribune

The morning after perhaps the best outing of his career, Johan Santana was at a gym with teammates Carlos Silva and Boof Bonser for a little aerobic spinning. Yes, his cell phone smoldered from all the congratulatory calls following his club-record 17-strikeout performance on Sunday against Texas. He could only savor the moment for so long before returning to the routine that's helped him win two AL Cy Young awards.

"It's always fun when you do something special," Santana said. "At the same time, you have to work. It's not like everything is over. It's not the only game you have."
...
Catcher Mike Redmond, who called Sunday's game, combined with Paul Lo Duca to catch a 14-strikeout game by A.J. Burnett while with the Marlins in 2004. Redmond, however, isn't ready to have Santana autograph any memorabilia from Sunday's game.

"I'm not going have him sign anything until the end of the year," Redmond said.

"I still think he can do better, so I'm holding out."

---------------------------------

By Paul Levy,
Star Tribune

David and Dawn Blackburn were newlyweds when he made the ultimate vow. "He said if it ever came down to it, 'I would die for you,' " Dawn Blackburn recalled Monday. "And that's exactly what he did."

The Blackburns, who had been married for five years, were returning to their Spring Grove, Minn., home from dinner in LaCrosse, Wis., early Sunday when their car slid along a flooded road near La Crescent, Minn., into a ditch.

David, who had celebrated his 37th birthday Friday, helped Dawn, 34, and friend Terri Peterson climb a nearby tree to safety. But David was convinced the tree would not support three adults. "I begged him to get back into the tree," Dawn said. "He said there was no room.

"I tried pulling his hand a couple of times. He said, 'I love you.' And then he was gone. I think he knew."

David's foot apparently became stuck between the tree and the couple's vehicle, Dawn said. There were reports that David was washed away in a downpour, but Dawn thinks he was pinned against the vehicle. Through the dark downpour, there was no way to know.

"My husband's gone. Can anybody help me?" Dawn shouted until she grew hoarse.

Through two rescue attempts over three hours, she waited in the tree. Finally, Dawn and Peterson were taken to safety by boat, she said. David's body was found, in their vehicle.
...
He cherished his time with sons Michael, 5, and Noah, 3, and stepsons David, 17, and Jacob, 13, said Fogel.

"He told me he loved me just before he died," Dawn Blackburn said. "What a remarkable man."

12of 13, and praying for just one more...

Recovering and bringing home the body is just so important in some cultures. The dignity of the dead. Maybe it's a uniquely American trait, one associated with people who live on the land -- who really live in their bodies, more so than others who live more in their minds...

You think of the Utah miners, over 100 miners in China, the MIA's still mourned from Vietnam, the decision to stop sifting through the rubble at Ground Zero... Hard choices, but in each case you understand the pain and need in wanting to bring the body home. Maybe, good Lord willing, Mrs. Jolstad will get her wish:

MINNEAPOLIS - Lisa Jolstad's worst fear since the interstate bridge collapse was that her husband would still be missing in the Mississippi River after all the other victims of the disaster had been found. That's exactly what happened. But searchers who returned to the water Monday plan to keep looking for construction worker Greg Jolstad, even though he could have been swept away forever down the river.
...
Greg Jolstad, 45, was part of a crew resurfacing the bridge when it fell. He was driving a piece of construction equipment called a skid loader, which is most commonly known by the brand name Bobcat. Kathryn Janicek, spokeswoman for Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek said finding Jolstad's body remained the top priority of the recovery operation.

"You need to know that those guys are back in the water this morning, and we're not giving up," Janicek said Monday. "They're continuing 24-7 to find him, period. Hopefully we'll have very good news soon."

Janicek said the county would not reveal if searchers have located Jolstad's skid loader. Recently they found several sets of human remains in cars, but the type of machinery Jolstad was operating typically is only partially enclosed. Stanek has said that areas downstream from the bridge are also subject to search in case any victims were swept from the collapse site by the river current.
...
Greg Jolstad was one of 18 construction workers on the bridge working for Progressive Contractors Inc. The other 17 survived the collapse. Seven of them suffered injuries, but none critical.

Jolstad had worked for PCI for 10 years, often commuting 90 miles one way to road jobs in the Twin Cities from his home in the central Minnesota town of Mora. Lisa and Greg Jolstad were married in 1995 and lived with Lisa's three teenage children from a previous marriage in a 97-year-old farmhouse north of town where Greg Jolstad grew up.

"Greg never wanted to venture far from home," Lisa Jolstad said.
...
She found out early Sunday that divers had found the body of the 12th victim, Scott Sathers, 29. That made Greg Jolstad the only person still known to be missing after the Aug. 1 collapse. Jolstad said families of other victims have sent word through police contacts that they are concerned for Jolstad.
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A tax assessor currently between jobs, Lisa Jolstad is living for now on her husband's paycheck, which PCI has continued to issue, as well as paying for grief counselors for family members.

"Everyone at the company is just heartsick for Greg's family," said David Lillehaug, PCI's attorney.

Lisa Jolstad said she's trying to keep occupied by getting the farmhouse ready for winter. "I sit home every night, and I just can't believe he's not coming home," she said. "I look out the back door window and it's weird not to see his truck out there. I look out the bathroom window at the sky and know he's up there, and I say, you know, why did you have to leave, Greg?"

Bringing home the bodies. It's never easy work. But surely it sobers us. And soberness, dignity, humility and respect: superbad, sure, lest we forget...

Someday, our best and brightest may even understand. Dignity for the dead means caring about those still living. Respecting the dead brings respect for life, right?

Major maintenance on oil facilities.

Gulf state to suspend 25 percent of oil production

ABU DHABI — The United Arab Emirates plans to reduce crude oil production by up to 25 percent within weeks. The reports of a UAE oil slowdown — not yet confirmed by the government — have driven up the price of Abu Dhabi crude to its highest levels in eight months.

Industry sources said the UAE was planning major maintenance on oil facilities in October 2007. The sources said this could result in a halt of up to 810,000 barrels per day, or 25 percent of total oil production. The UAE produces 2.54 million barrels of oil per day.

The maintenance was expected to suspend operations in the Upper Zakum and Lower Zakum fields. The sources said Umm Shaif field would lose around 180,000 barrels per day. The sources said the maintenance program would take several weeks.

Johan Santana... YO-han!

(Johan) Santana set a franchise record with 17 strikeouts in eight innings to lead the Minnesota Twins past the Texas Rangers 1-0 Sunday.
...

Santana's 17 strikeouts were the most in the majors since Ben Sheets fanned 18 in Milwaukee's 4-1 win over Atlanta on May 16, 2004, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He broke the Minnesota record of 15, accomplished four times — the last by Bert Blyleven on Aug. 1, 1986, against Oakland.

"Somehow I'll always remember this game," said Michael Cuddyer, who homered for the lone run.

Catcher Mike Redmond said Santana (13-9) did not shake him off once.

"I've had a handful of opportunities to catch a no-hitter. I've had a couple of one-hitters and a few two-hitters," he said. "When I walked off the field in the second inning I thought 'This could be it. This guy's got some amazing stuff today.' ... He was unbelievable. He executed all day."

Santana retired the first 12 batters he faced before Sammy Sosa led off the fifth with a single to left-center. Sosa also doubled with two outs in the seventh for Texas' only other hit against the left-hander.

"I didn't try to do anything different, I was just trying to stay aggressive, get ahead in the count and throw my fastball for strikes," Santana said.
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Minnesota's 19 strikeouts for the game were also a team record. The previous mark was 18, last set May 22 at Texas. Santana had 13 Ks in that win.
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Minnesota has scored just four runs in its last five games at the Metrodome, three of them wins.
...

"Our offense carried us. We scored a run," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said with a smile.
...

"He's got such great arm action with everything, so it is tough to lay off of it," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "The only thing you can do is sit on the changeup, and if he throws you three straight fastballs, you're screwed. You've more or less got to do guesswork on him."

Santana struck out six of the last seven batters he faced, including a 93 mph fastball he threw past Jarrod Saltalamacchia on his 112th —— and final —— pitch. He tipped his cap to the crowd as he reached the dugout.

"I felt good, but at the same time we knew in that game situation that Nathan will be the right guy to go back out there," Santana said. "He's one of the closers in the game and I trust him, just like I trust all my teammates."

Sanctuary sure, but not a public platform.

or, Choices have Consequences.

Elvira Arrellano, a Mexican woman who sought sanctuary from deportation in a Chicago church was arrested Sunday in Los Angeles. A spokesperson from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency would not confirm Arrellano was taken in by ICE agents on Olvera Street, near La Placita Church, in the Los Angeles Civic Center area at about 3 p.m.

Arellano and her son Saul, 8, who is a U.S. citizen, were in Los Angeles seeking immigration reform and were staying at La Placita Church. She visited three area churches to speak about immigration, but was arrested before she could go to a fourth church.

Arellano defied a deportation order to report to the Department of Homeland Security on Aug. 15, 2006. Instead, she sought refuge in the Adalberto United Methodist Church in the Humboldt Park area of Chicago.

According to the New Sanctuary Movement, more than 600,000 families in the United States have at least one member facing deportation because they are illegal residents.

Arellano claims she seeks to remain in the United States so her American-born son can get medical care for his attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Arellano arrived in the U.S. in 1997 and was soon deported back to Mexico. In 2000, she returned and moved to Illinois, working at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport cleaning planes. She was arrested in 2002 and later convicted of working under a false Social Security number, prompting the order for her to be deported.

Power of the Jewish Holocaust fades...

as the righteousness of the "never again" slogans are compromised for reality. Can we begin to understand why some countries back then refused to accommodate fleeing Jews? Was it necessarily anti-semitism, as the spin goes, and would it be just as simplistic to call this uncaring racism?

In time, it's natural that despite the closely dedicated organizational grip, other victims would supplant the Jews for our synpathies -- maybe the Darfur refugees could push to be awarded a homeland of their own for their sufferings? Preferably carved out from those doing the oppressing.

JERUSALEM - Israel said Sunday it would no longer accept refugees from Sudan's Darfur region, touching off debate over whether the Jewish state, founded after the Nazi genocide, has a duty to take in people fleeing persecution.

Israel has been grappling for months with how to deal with a swelling flow of Africans, including some from Darfur, who have crossed its porous southern border with Egypt's Sinai desert. Overnight, Israel returned 48 Africans to Egypt. Israeli government spokesman David Baker said he did not know if any were from Darfur, but noted Darfurians would not be immune from Israel's ban on unauthorized migrants.

"The policy of returning back anyone who enters Israel illegally will pertain to everyone, including those from Darfur," he said. Egyptian police said Darfurians were among the 48 — and would be expelled from Egypt to Sudan.

The decision to turn back asylum-seekers from Darfur contradicts Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's pledge earlier this summer to absorb them. Baker said those already in Israel would be allowed to stay, and that the turnback policy applied to new arrivals. Though the case of the Darfur refugees is unusual, the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin set a precedent in 1977 when he offered asylum to nearly 400 Vietnamese boat people.

That the refugees are from Sudan further complicates matters, because Israeli law denies asylum to anyone from an enemy state. Sudan's Muslim government is hostile to Israel and has no diplomatic ties with the Jewish state. Fighting between pro-government militias and rebels in Darfur has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million since February 2003. Most of the displaced people remain in Darfur, but the U.N. estimates 236,000 have fled across the border to neighboring Chad, where they live in camps.

Tens of thousands of other asylum-seekers have sought sanctuary in Egypt, which is ill-equipped to provide jobs and social services. About 400 of the Darfurians who reached Egypt have driven and trekked through desert sands to the unfenced frontier with Israel, according to advocates for the refugees in Israel.

Israel's threats to expel the unexpected arrivals have clashed with humanitarian sentiments inspired by the memory of Jews vainly seeking sanctuary from the Nazis.

Eytan Schwartz, an advocate for Darfur refugees in Israel, said about 400 have entered Israel in recent years. Baker said they would be allowed to live in Israel, and that the ban applied to new arrivals.

Schwartz objected to any ban. "The state of Israel has to show compassion for refugees after the Jewish people was subject to persecution throughout its history," he said.

But Ephraim Zuroff of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center said the Jewish people could not be expected to right every wrong just because of its past.

"Israel can't throw open the gates and allow unlimited access for people who are basically economic refugees," Zuroff said. The asylum-seekers found sanctuary from mass murder by fleeing to Egypt, he said. "Their desire to enter Israel was motivated primarily by the difficult living conditions and bleak economic prospects in that country," he added.

Israel estimates that 2,800 people have entered the country illegally through Sinai in recent years. Nearly all are from Africa, including 1,160 from Sudan, and many spent months or years in Egypt before entering Israel.

The number shot up in the past two months, apparently as word spread of jobs in Israel. As many as 50 people arrived each day in June, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Israel recently announced it had reached an understanding with Egypt to take back many of the refugees and that they would be treated well. But Egypt has denied any obligation to take them back, and it was unclear what fate expelled Africans would face once returned to Egypt.

Many Sudanese find life difficult in Egypt, where riot police killed nearly 30 people when clearing a refugee encampment in central Cairo in 2005. Israel has often urged Egypt to step up its surveillance of the border to prevent the illegal flow of goods and people. Egypt has increased its efforts recently, with almost daily reports of African refugees arrested by authorities before entering Israel.

In July, Egyptian police shot and killed a Sudanese woman trying to cross into Israel, the first confirmed death of its kind. And earlier this month, Israeli media reported that Egyptian border guards beat to death two Sudanese men in front of Israeli soldiers.

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Related:

It wasn't merely the energy of a nonagenarian that inspired a kind of awe, though. It was what he wrote and the way he wrote it that counted. Take his last column, only a couple of weeks ago, penned from his bed.

'It is time the world was shaken awake to the infamy of what is going on in Darfur,' he wrote.

'In terms of man's inhumanity to man, what has been going on there for four years is now comparable to the death camps for which Germany's Nazis were found guilty. That statement may provoke cries of outrage from some: surely the Holocaust stands alone? Not to me it doesn't, and as a soldier I had to enter one of those camps and went to the trial of its commandant. I have also been to Darfur.'

Jamaica in my eyes...

Malcolm and Cecil, January 2006


















Mayfield Falls:







Ever an island of fighters and survivors*:



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*Some say it was the Blue Mountains in Jamaica that Dr. King was referring to in the last speech he delivered. He visited in January 1967, for a month of rest.

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

One stop forward...

two steps back.

Oil jumps on Fed discount rate cut, hurricane
By Matthew Robinson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped on Friday after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut a key interest rate to calm financial markets and on concerns Hurricane Dean could hit Gulf of Mexico installations.

U.S. crude (CLc1) settled up 98 cents at $71.98 a barrel, after trading as high as $72.54. London Brent crude (LCOc1) was up 67 cents at $70.44.

Forecasts showing Hurricane Dean could spin toward Gulf of Mexico oil rigs and refineries next week supported oil markets that were nervous about potential damage to the region, which pumps a third of U.S. oil output.

But late Friday, a survey of weather models monitored by Reuters showed most forecasters predicting the storm would pass south of offshore U.S. natural gas and oil installations.
...
In a rare statement between scheduled meetings, the U.S. central bank's policy-setting committee said risks to economic growth "have increased appreciably" due to global credit crisis and financial market turmoil.

"The cut may ease the liquidity crisis in the United States," Christopher Bellew of Bache Financial said. "Of course, you could interpret it as an indication of how serious they think the problem is."

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Generally speaking, this is why some favor a hands-off approach to artificially manipulating the market. Treat the underlying disease, not the symptoms, right? Else you just put off the reckoning for another day, or shift the burden.

Among economists who saw hypocrisy in wealthy investors and Wall Street traders urging speedy Fed intervention -- a turnabout from their usual stance -- was Richard Yamarone, chief economist for Argus Research in New York.

"My mother always told me those who play with fire get burned," he said yesterday. "Here, that apparently doesn't hold true. Someone is making my mother out to be a liar, and that's not a good thing."

Why we should care about Jose Padilla.

Marty Lederman:

Unlike in past conflicts, when the purpose of detention was incapacitation of actual combatants so that they could not fight against us, the dominant purpose of this detention regime is intelligence-gathering -- and that's something that the Administration has concluded can only be effective if the will, the human agency, of the detainees, is broken completely. As Jane Mayer reported last week, the essential objective is to reduce the detainees to a state of "learned helplessness," which "creates dread and dependency."

This explains, among other things, the breadth of the definition of who may be detained as an "enemy combatant" (going far beyond traditional combatants to include virtually anyone who might have actionable intelligence); the need for "disappearances," i.e., secret facilities not subject to oversight; the severe isolation and sensory deprivation the CSM story describes; the strenuous efforts to exclude judicial review; and the insistence on keeping secret any information about which interrogation techniques are legal.

In this respect, there is no more important public government document in this whole scandal than the Declaration filed in the Padilla case by Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby, Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The Lowell Declaration explains, quite forthrightly, that the DIA's "approach to interrogation" is "largely dependent upon creating an atmosphere of dependency and trust" between the subject and the interrogator:

Developing the kind of relationship of trust and dependency necessary for effective interrogations is a process that can take a significant amount of time. There are numerous examples of situations where interrogators have been unable to obtain valuable intelligence from a subject until months, or even years, after the interrogation process began.

Anything that threatens the perceived dependency and trust between the subject and interrogator directly threatens the value of interrogation as an intelligence-gathering tool. Even seemingly minor interruptions can have profound psychological impacts on the delicate subject-interrogator relationship. Any insertion of counsel into the subject-interrogator relationship, for example -- even if only for a limited duration or for a specific purpose -- can undo months of work and may permanently shut down the interrogation process. Therefore, it is critical to minimize external influences on the interrogation process.

The adjective "Orwellian" is overused these days. But if anything is eligible for that appellation, it must be the Administration's repeated mantra that its detention and interrogation regime is designed to establish a relationship of "trust and dependency." That is, quite literally, right out of 1984.
...

(T)he Administration did not try to defend Padilla's indefinite, isolated detention -- and the denial of an attorney and of any judicial oversight -- on the ground that "the President thought that Padilla was a dangerous man." If dangerousness had been the issue, the Administration could have simply kept Padilla detained in the ordinary criminal justice system, where he had been. As Jacoby explains, the reason Padilla was moved to indefinite military detention resembling (as Jack notes) classical authoritarian models, was not dangerousness, but instead the Administration's desire to break him in order to obtain possible actionable information about al Qaeda training, planning, recruitment, methods and operations.

The most remarkable thing about the Jacoby Declaration, in my view, is not even its casual and horrific use of euphemism, but rather that it is a public document -- indeed, a document created in order to be submitted to courts in order to persuade them that such detention is lawful and, most importantly, that it is critical to place such detentions entirely outside ordinary legal process, to a netherworld without lawyers and judges (indeed, without any contact with persons outside the "relationship" of "trust and dependency").

Jacoby again:

Permitting Padilla any access to counsel may substantially harm our national security interests. As with most detainees, Padilla is unlikely to cooperate if he believes that an attorney will intercede in his detention. DIA's assessment is that Padilla is even more inclined to resist interrogation than most detainees. DIA is aware that Padilla has had extensive experience in the United States criminal justice system and had access to counsel when he was being held as a material witness. These experiences have likely heightened his expectations that counsel will assist him in the interrogation process. Only after such as Padilla has perceived that help is not on the way can the United States reasonably expect to obtain all possible intelligence information from Padilla.

Because Padilla is likely more attuned to the possibility of counsel intervention than most detainees, I believe that any potential sign of counsel involvement would disrupt our ability to gather intelligence from Padilla. Padilla has been detained without access to counsel for seven months -- since the [Department of Defense] took control of him on 9 June 2002. Providing him access to counsel now would create expectations by Padilla that his ultimate release may be obtained through an adversarial civil litigation process. This would break -- probably irreparably - the sense of dependency and trust that the interrogators are attempting to create.

At a minimum, Padilla might delay providing information until he believes that his judicial avenues have been exhausted. Given the nature of his case, his prior experience in the criminal justice system, and the length of that has already elapsed since his detention, Padilla might reasonably expect that his judicial avenues of relief may not be exhausted for many months or years. Moreover, Padilla might harbor the belief that his counsel would be available to assist him at any point and that seven months is not an unprecedented for him to be without access to counsel.

Any such delay in Padilla's case risks that plans for future attacks will go undetected during that period, and that whatever information Padilla may eventually provide will be outdated and more difficult to corroborate.

In other words, legal process must be entirely denied Padilla so that he will come to think that all hope is lost -- that he is in a world without law or due process. As long as he even thinks that he is subject to the Constitution and laws of the United States, the "relationship" of "trust and dependency" is broken.

I, for one, found this chilling when I first saw it. Moreover, I was fairly shocked that the government was being so candid -- indeed, that the government decided to invoke this rationale affirmatively, in court submissions, as a justification not only for the indefinite, secret detention of citizens such as Padilla and Yasser Hamdi, but as part of an argument to the courts that attorneys and courts must be entirely excluded from this detention regime -- because lawyers, judges and due process are, after all, and in Jacoby's words, "external influences on the interrogation process."

The Solicitor General even placed the Jacoby Declaration in the Appendix in the Padilla/Hamdi cases, and cited it liberally in support of its argument to the Court that the Administration should be entitled to detain persons not only for purposes of incapacitation, but also for purposes of long-term interrogations.

That is why, just as the Jacoby Declaration is the single most revealing document released by the government in the conflict against al Qaeda, so, too, the single most important sentence in any of the Supreme Court's decisions in the al Qaeda cases was a stark rejection of the government's rationale -- indeed, a remarkable rebuke to the Jacoby Declaration -- in Justice O'Connor's controlling opinion in Hamdi. After explaining at length that the laws of war and the Authorization for Use of Military Force permit detention for purposes of incapacitating combatants, Justice O'Connor wrote (542 U.S. at 521):

"Certainly, we agree that indefinite detention for the purpose of interrogation is not authorized."

No citation offered, because none should be needed. "Certainly."

Big Bad John.

Jimmy Dean.

Taking care of Israel.

U.S. signs $30 billion defense pact with Israel
By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United States sealed a deal on Thursday to provide Israel with $30 billion in defense grants over the next decade, a 25 percent boost that Washington describes as strengthening a bulwark against Iran.

At a signing ceremony in Jerusalem, U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said the United States would help Israel maintain a military advantage over foes ranging from Iran and Syria to their proxies in Lebanon and Palestinian territories.

"There is no question that, from an American point of view, the Middle East is a more dangerous region now even than it was 10 or 20 years ago and that Israel is facing a growing threat. It's immediate and it's also long-term," Burns told reporters.

"The United States faces many of the same threats from the same organizations and countries as Israel does, and so we felt this was the right level of assistance."

The Bush administration said last month that it would also offer weapons worth $20 billion to Saudi Arabia and other allied Gulf states. Egypt stands to get $13 billion in defense assistance over the next decade, similar to present levels.
...
Burns said the new aid to Israel, which currently receives $2.4 billion in annual military grants, would not be conditioned on diplomatic progress or concessions though "one of the major priorities for our government ... will be to help push forward a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians".

The United States, Burns said, considers "this $30 billion in assistance to Israel to be an investment in peace, in long-term peace -- peace cannot be made without strength".

Israel overhauled its armed forces since suffering surprise setbacks in last year's war with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.

Assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, Israel has vowed to prevent Iran, its arch-enemy, from acquiring the bomb. Iran denies its nuclear program has military aims.

"We have an exceptionally heavy defense burden," said Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer, who officiated at the signing ceremony. "The fact that the United States is willing to share a significant part of that burden ... is a critical element in the budget."

Israel is the only recipient of U.S. defense grants allowed to spent some of them -- 26.3 percent -- on domestic arms firms.

How special!

Israeli defense experts say the funds are vital for developing technologies that are used to upgrade U.S.-supplied weaponry and guarantee a "qualitative edge." But there have been American objections to the idea of underwriting Israeli firms that could compete with U.S. counterparts in the global market.

An Israeli official said the Americans had initially wanted to cap the amount of U.S. assistance that may be spent on Israeli defense industries at $625 million a year, but eventually relented, agreeing to a fixed percentage.

Burns and Fischer said the sides had not finalized details on what weaponry would be supplied to Israel under the new deal.

(Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem)

Some things money can't buy...
and in the long run, you have to ask if the Israelis are really being helped by our continually sheltering them from the consequences of their actions. How will they ever learn to stand alone in their own defense, independent from the United States?* What will they do when that day comes? Subsidizing stupidity, we are.

Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue.
-----------------------------

*Will it matter if Israeli forces, rather than the United States, preemptively attack Iran on the American taxpayers' dime? Will the enemy distinguish between us? Will the American people be supportive ... over the long run? How much is America willing to continue to sacrifice her Constitutional ideals, her young people's lives, her dwindling financial power (you following the Federal Reserve's actions to stimulate the markets?) to artificially prop up Israel? Inquiring minds want to know.

Know when to walk away...

The most professional politician running...

America sure loved the Osmonds, eh?

(CNN)–Mitt Romney added another straw poll victory to his resume Thursday.

Illinois state Republican party chairman, Andy McKenna, said Romney won the Illinois Straw poll at the Illinois State Fair. "Congratulations to Mitt Romney, whose strong showing today indicates he has begun to put together a strong statewide organization," McKenna said. "There's no question that Illinois' demographics closely match those of the United States and this could be an indication as to whom Illinois voters are leaning toward this coming February."

Romney secured an overwhelming victory with 40.35 percent of the vote.

Final results of Thursday's Illinois straw poll:

1. Mitt Romney – 40.35%
2. Fred Thompson – 19.96%
3. Ron Paul – 18.87%
4. Rudy Giuliani – 11.61%
5. John McCain – 4.12%
6. Mike Huckabee – 3.04%
7. Sam Brownback – 1.08%
8. Duncan Hunter - .65%
9. Tom Tancrado - .33%

Questionable.

Among the key links are seven fingerprints that the authorities lifted from the application form.

A U.S. fingerprint expert testified that a 2006 analysis identified Padilla's fingerprints on the front of the first page of the form and on the back of the last page.

Defense attorneys have questioned why Padilla's prints do not appear on the middle pages of the application form. They have suggested that the prints' locations are consistent with Padilla being handed the form during his detention, and not opening it.

But there is no way of knowing when those prints were made, the fingerprint expert said.

The form, defense attorney Anthony Natale told jurors this week, is a "questionable document."

He warned them against believing the prosecutors who, he alleged, had allowed the atmospherics of the case -- the associations with al-Qaeda and bin Laden -- to make a weak set of facts look stronger than it is.

"In the absence of hard evidence, a suspicion can be fueled by fear, nourished by prejudice and directed by politics into a criminal prosecution," he said.

------------------------------
Trivia:
I think Peter Whoriskey used to report for The Palm Beach Post, no?

Who is Zona Gale?

Zona Gale (August 26, 1874 – December 27, 1938) was an American writer.

Born in Portage, Wisconsin, which she often used as a setting in her writing, she attended Wayland Academy in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Later she entered the University of Wisconsin-Madison, from which she received a Bachelor of Literature degree in 1895, and four years later a Master's degree.

After graduation, Gale wrote for newspapers in Milwaukee and New York City. However, before long she gave up journalism to focus on fiction writing. She then published her first novel, Romance Island (1906), and began the very popular series of "Friendship Village" stories.

In 1912, Gale moved back to Portage, which she would call home for the rest of her life, although alternating with trips to New York. In 1920, she published the novel Miss Lulu Bett, which depicts life in the Midwestern United States. She adapted it as a play, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921. In the same year, Gale took an active role in the creation of the Wisconsin Equal Rights Law, which prohibits discrimination against women.

Locally, she's being celebrated this weekend:

Nancy Atkinson Breitsprecher, a retired chaplain and former Portage resident, is a prominent expert on Gale's life and works. The Fort Atkinson resident has an extensive collection of writings on the author, which will eventually become part of the Wisconsin State Historical Society's Zona Gale collection at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Breitsprecher will be one of a number of presenters that will speak at Zona Gale's gravesite Saturday morning, and said the issues and lessons that the prominent activist voiced in the 19th century still ring true today.

"They echo down the years. They reform under different masks but they're basically the same," Breitsprecher said. "I think every culture has to ask itself if it's open to the rights of others that may be different from them."
...
"If it wasn't for her, Portage may have forgotten the kind of people that lived here in the early 1900s," (former Portage Mayor Jeff) Grothman said.

(The current Mayor Ken) Jahn said he was excited to participate in the event in his new role as mayor. He hoped the weather would hold out and the turnout would be solid. "I like what it is," Jahn said.

"It's kind of a family, earthy-type event."

-----------------------------------

"The world is beginning.
I must go and help it turn.......!"

Answer: A closeted gay man.

Question: Who was Merv Griffin?

Modern art that makes sense.

By Allie Shah, Star Tribune

They are the faces of ordinary people forever changed by war. Twenty-two oil paintings, so far. Portraits of soldiers, peace activists, contractors and others who have had an up- close and personal view of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their faces and statements about their views are part of an intimate exhibit, called "100 Faces of War Experiences," that opens today at the St. Paul Central Library.
Artist Matt Mitchell, an Arden Hills native who lives in Massachusetts, says his goal is to find at least one person from each state to paint on his way to amassing 100 faces total. Already, two Minnesotans are featured.

The Rev. Tim Vakoc, the U.S. Army chaplain who is recovering from a traumatic brain injury after he was struck by a roadside bomb blast in Iraq; and Koufan Hersons, a U.S. Marine staff sergeant who served as an aviation mechanic in Fallujah in 2004. The Hmong serviceman was granted citizenship after he returned from his Iraq tour.

Mitchell said he came up with the idea two years ago because he wanted to learn more about what was happening in Iraq and Afghanistan from the people involved.

"The broadest goal is that people come away from the show and they can't help but talk and think about it," he said. "My hope is that they'll spend some more time thinking about what these wars mean."

What: An art exhibit featuring 22 portraits and statements from soldiers and others whose lives have been forever changed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Matt Mitchell, the artist, aims to paint 100 faces and collect their stories.

When: Aug. 17-31; opening reception 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Where: St. Paul Central Library, 4th floor, 90 W. 4th St.

More info: Call 651-266-7000 or go to www.100 facesofwarexperience.org

"We as a state don't want any more injuries...

We've had enough."

Quite applicable all the way around, eh?


Cold honesty is often better than false hope, because it helps you know when to cut your losses.

Video images were obscured by water running down that bore hole, but officials said they could see beyond it to an undamaged chamber in the rear of the mine. It yielded no sign the miners had been there.

Murray said it would take at least two days for the latest drill to reach its target, in an area where a seismic listening device detected a "noise" or vibration in 1.5-second increments and lasting for five minutes. The drilling began Thursday.

Officials say it's impossible to know what caused the vibrations and clarified the limits of the technology.

The geophone can pinpoint the direction of the source of the disturbance, but it can't tell whether it came from within the mine, the layers of rock above the mine or from the mountain's surface, said MSHA chief Richard Stickler.

The "noise," a term he used a day before, wasn't anything officials could hear, Stickler said. "Really, it's not sounds but vibrations."

Know when to fold em...

Elvis is Dead...

and I Don't Feel So Good Myself.

Working in the bookstore, I never minded shelving Lewis Grizzard titles from the cart. (Shoot Low Boys-- They're Ridin' Shetland Ponies. Chili Dogs Always Bark at Night. Does a Wild Bear Chip in the Woods?)

He's gone now, and if you don't remember his humor, think a Southern version of Garrison Keillor.

Quite prolific, he didn't really have an easy life of it. Hence the humor. I don't know how Grizzard would have fared in later times, had he been born 20 or 30 years later. You read something like this Don't Forget to Call Your Mama I Wish I Could Call Mine, and naturally wonder.

Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal

YA-- The title may come from Coach Bear Bryant, but the text is pure Grizzard. The first and last chapters are poignant descriptions of his mother's long battle with scleroderma, a battle she lost just two days before her 77th birthday. The remaining narrative is the story of their lives, written by a son whose life she shaped and who obviously loved her very much. He recounts his Southern youth with expected humor, but with such a respect and appreciation for his mother that the laughter is tinged with nostalgic memories. A bittersweet tribute.

Katherine Fitch, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA

Copyright 1991 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

I also have to wonder how Elvis would have turned out had Gladys not died while he was away in the service. August 14, 1958, a heart attack brought on by hepatitis. She was only 46.
----------------------------------

'I'd like to say that I learned very early in life that 'Without a song, the day would never end; without a song, a man ain't got a friend; without a song, the road would never bend - without a song.' So I keep singing a song..."

~ Elvis Presley, Jaycees acceptance speech
(January 16, 1971).

For that, we thankyouverymuch.

I love it...

By LEONARD PITTS JR.

Sen. Barack Obama was scheduled to address the National Association of Black Journalists, but he was late. A hum of conversation hung over the standing-room-only crowd waiting for him in a ballroom at Bally's Las Vegas.

Then, maybe 15 minutes after the appointed starting time, the would-be president was introduced. "I want to apologize for being a little bit late," he said. "But you guys keep on asking whether I'm black enough" -- and here he had to pause for the roar of laughter that ensued -- "so I figured I'd stroll in about 10 minutes after deadline."

As the laughter subsided, he murmured, "I've been holding that in my pocket for awhile."

Offline for the next few...

Subsumed will resume shortly.
Zoom zoom.

A different way to be...

China toy boss kills self after recall

BEIJING (AP) -- The head of a Chinese toy manufacturing company at the center of a huge U.S. recall has committed suicide, a state-run newspaper said Monday.

Zhang Shuhong, who co-owned Lee Der Industrial Co. Ltd., killed himself at a warehouse over the weekend, days after China announced it had temporarily banned exports by the company, the Southern Metropolis Daily said.

Lee Der made 967,000 toys recalled earlier this month by Mattel Inc. because they were made with paint found to have excessive amounts of lead. The plastic preschool toys, sold under the Fisher-Price brand in the U.S., included the popular Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters.

It was among the largest recalls in recent months involving Chinese products, which have come under fire for globally for containing potentially dangerous high levels of chemicals and toxins.

The Southern Metropolis Daily said that a supplier, Zhang's best friend, sold Lee Der fake paint which was used in the toys.

"The boss and the company were harmed by the paint supplier, the closest friend of our boss," a manager surnamed Liu was quoted as saying.

Liu said Zhang hung himself on Saturday, according to the report. It is common for disgraced officials to commit suicide in China.

------------------------------------------

Karl Rove to resign at end of August

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Karl Rove, President Bush's close friend and chief political strategist, plans to leave the White House at the end of August, joining a lengthening line of senior officials heading for the exits in the final 1 1/2 years of the administration.

On board with Bush since the beginning of his political career in Texas, Rove was nicknamed "the architect" and "boy genius" by the president for designing the strategy that twice won him the White House. Critics call Rove "Bush's brain."

A criminal investigation put Rove under scrutiny for months during the investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's name but he was never charged with any crime.

In a more recent controversy, Rove, citing executive privilege, has refused to testify before Congress about the firing of U.S. attorneys.

...

Rove, currently the deputy White House chief of staff, has been the president's political guru for years and worked with Bush since he first ran for governor of Texas in 1993.

Even as he discussed his departure, Rove remained characteristically sunny. This quality of unrelenting optimism about the president, which matches Bush's own upbeat, never-admit-disappointment nature, has at times gotten Rove into trouble.

Up to the end of the 2006 midterm elections, the political guru predicted a Republican win. That of course was not to be, and there was grumbling that Rove wasn't on his game during those elections as much as he had been before.

In the interview, Rove predicted Bush will regain his popularity, which has sunk to record lows because of the war in Iraq."

Things that make you go "hmm..."

By MATT SEDENSKY,
Associated Press Writer

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - A school opening this month is named for a Jewish high priest, is directed by a rabbi, will have kosher food and will teach Hebrew. It's also a public school, funded by public tax dollars and following state curriculum guidelines.

Ben Gamla Charter School, billed as the nation's first publicly funded Hebrew-English school, has prompted fears of religion creeping into public schools and has even drawn criticism from groups that defend Jewish causes. Similar criticisms have been raised against Arabic-language charter schools elsewhere, with some saying those schools teach Islam.

Organizers insist that while Ben Gamla will teach Hebrew language and culture, it won't cross the divide between church and state.

"To me, it's very obvious that we're not teaching religion," said Rabbi Adam Siegel, the school's director. He previously directed two private Jewish day schools in Miami Beach. "Religion is prayer, it's God, it's Bible. And so if you stay away from there, you're not teaching religion."
...
Its new building, set to open Aug. 20, will replace earlier quarters leased from a synagogue that had only enough room for 100 children in kindergarten through third grade. The three-story building the school is moving into has space for more than 400 students, through eighth grade.
...
The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the school sets a dangerous precedent.

"Whenever you have a public school, a public charter school, that focuses on a particular culture that has an intense religious connection, there is the risk that you will end up teaching that religion," he said. "It could happen because some people believe culture and religion are inseparable, or it could happen because many of the teachers and administrators are of one religion and don't recognize the problem."

Even the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Federation of Broward County have expressed concerns.

"There are unanswered questions as to how the subject matter of Jewish culture can be taught without also teaching the Jewish religion," said federation head Eric Stillman.

---------------------------------

[Eugene Volokh, August 10, 2007 at 2:13pm]
Looking for Cute Tarot Deck To Use for Calling Randomly on Students: I'd like to pass a deck around to my Criminal Law students so they can write their names on each card, and so I can then call on them fairly randomly. Since the class is 80 students, I take it a Tarot deck plus one or two other cards will do the trick.

Can anyone recommend any Tarot decks I can order online that are either generally visually appealing, or, better yet, have a legal motif or a crime motif (though not too gory)? They would also need to have some white (or pale) space in which each student's name can be written. Thanks!

Internet website hypes fears? Heh!

By ARON HELLER

JERUSALEM (AP) -- The reported threat of a dirty bomb attack in New York City that led to heightened security this weekend came from a Jerusalem-based Web site that claims more than a million daily readers, but is criticized by intelligence experts as unreliable.

Giora Shamis and his wife, Diane Shalem, launched DEBKAfile (Debka.com) in 2000 to focus on security, terrorist activities and military affairs in the Middle East. Shamis claims he and his wife predicted the al-Qaida attack on the World Trade Center.

Shamis says Debka, which is financed by subscriptions and ad revenue, has a daily readership of 1.3 million. But its reports, published in English and Hebrew, rely on anonymous sourcing and often prove untrue.

---------------------------

Personally, I think the "terrorists" are too smart to attack in the next year. I know people are hoping though, it's a sickness but what good is insecurity if you don't get a good spook every now and then? People are building their campaigns around it.

Remember how we essentially bluffed Japan into thinking we had an arsenal of atomic bombs? Remember how we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then held our breath to see the response? I believe that's what 9/11 was, an isolated incident. (I think the anthrax attacks were unrelated, probably some disgruntled American like the smaller bombers we've seen in the past decades.)

By over-reacting and even wishing the enemy strikes again, it fulfills some sick inner need that "we're all in this together America". Or "see how strong we are, hanging together, bad guys?"

I think some folks don't have that spirit in their geographic communities anymore to meet what are basic human needs -- particularly large cities that operate solely on a commercial, not spiritual or community-values basis. To them, this "pulling together" spirit can only come now by an outside attack, otherwise there's just too many divisions in society to relate to the needs of others. Those people who for whatever reason are missing family ties, a spiritual center, or the sense of being a small part of an ongoing whole... I really do think they "need" another 9/11 to validate their fears.

This particular website is Jerusalem-based, but don't play the anti-Semite card on me: I think the category of fear-yearning encompasses people from all walks.

Just like the embrace of extreme sports when we have eliminated so many actual physical risks from our daily lives -- nothing wrong with that -- some people need a good scare every now and then to reach that "we're all in this together, you're not alone" feeling missing in their lives.

We romanticized World War II for the longest time. Now we're seeing the same with N.Y.C. and 9/11.

I'm going to predict the "terrorists" (remember, we're so busy chasing our tails around after beat-up icepacks and false reports, and our major misstep in Iraq -- that's still a pretty vague category) aren't so stupid to attack again on American soil in the coming year, no matter what some people unconsciously are hoping. Just like we bluffed Japan, it's not necessary.

We're doing enough neglecting of America's own needs, that there's no real need for violence to push our drop along. The markets being artifically pumped right now, and our own sorry lack of respect for health, or any kind of long-term values make me believe it's true: they won't beat us, we will beat ourselves.

Led into the battle by our own fearful hype.

I just remembered... there's even an associated theme song!

Boom Boom Boom,
Let's go back to my room*...

Very college frat party like, perfect for the kind of liberating blogger atmosphere where we let it all hang out for hits**, eh?

-------------------------------------
* Think early version of:
"My Milkshake Brings All the Boys to the Yard". Heh! Very vanilla.
**Sitemeter and PayPal hits, of course!

Lyrical hat-tip to Ann "Boom-Boom" Althouse.

A."B.B."A. writes today:

"I don't feel safe in this world no more." ...

Shall we join in, everyone?
*LOUDLY*

I don't wanna die in a nu-cular war!
I want to sail away to a distant shore,
and make like an apeman.
Oh come on and love me, be my apeman girl
And we'll be so happy in my apeman world!
Oh I'm an apeman, I'm an ape, apeman,
oh I'm an apeman...

*Time out everyone to chug-a-lug....*

~Kinks.
----------------------------


re. "I wonder what my 'controversial political views' were. I mean, what, really?"

I think, for me anyway, it was the way Boom-Boom continually advocated the position of the businesses being sued, over those hurt by their inferior, shoddy products which were proven to have caused damages and injuries.

This is Civ Pro folks, where you determine who even gets through the courtroom door for a shot at proving their case. Keep that door closed, sure the corporations can win. When you stand in front of a class everyday with the attitude that all plaintiffs are poor folks looking to cash in, rather than to hold the businesses/manufacturer's liable for their products, there's likely to be no accountability and recompense for those truly injured.

IN fact, I think many people object to the lack of accountability in America today, which really is Boom-Boom's calling card: politically, militarily, in the business sense and tenured academic world...

The classroom highlight for me was ALLSTATE v. HAGUE, the Civ Pro choice-of-law case on stacking the insurance policies, where the plaintiff's had paid premiums all along on more than one vehicle in Wisconsin, but had significant contacts in Minnesota whose law courts ultimately chose to apply. The plaintiff's dead husband who was killed in the motorcycle accident (and Boom-Boom is anti-bike, it came out in class) had commuted daily to Minnesota, where the widow relocated before proceeding with litigation. I think what really galled me was there was nothing in the facts, despite Boom-Boom's cynical in-class insinuations, showing the plaintiff had deliberately moved across the border to MN before suing just to apply that state's law. Rather she was a widow who had relocated to be closer to family/friends and eventually remarried. For years before her first husband's death, the couple had lived in Hager City, right on the border; it wasn't a "big move" necessarily made for legal reasons. But that's what we must think of all folks suing the big boys, I suppose.

All State was basically trying to weasel out of stacking the $15,000 uninsured motorists claim on the 3 vehicles, wanting to apply Wisconsin's weaker law. They lost on summary judgment, but Boom-Boom still wanted to convince the class the insurance company was in the right. To save a few dollars ($30,000 is peanuts really) for the corporation, of course. Never a shy one, she kinda lost control of the class when I suggested, "Hey, if they didn't want to stack em, maybe they shouldn't have cashed the checks for the three vehicle premiums paid in to them all those years..."

She had to revisit the topic the next day, after she'd composed herself. Funny how too many students these days just want to know what the teacher thinks, to regurgitate and score well in the class, nevermind what the law actually tells us, or what conclusions a brief but independent thinking-through by a student would bring.

You think I'm puffing on the facts here, but the truth is Boom-Boom's a Delaware* girl through and through, intent on preserving systematic advantages for the more financially fortunate ones. So much for business accountability, honest competition...

* There's a reason more than half of America's publicly traded businesses are incorporated in Delaware:

According to Elson, though, Chancery has moved steadily in the investor's direction. "Traditionally, the court's view was that shareholders were not sophisticated and needed to be protected from their own foolishness," he says. "Today what they need to be protected from is managerial overreaching" (see "A Delaware Dozen" at the end of this article).

**Oh, and I don't think the nickname's being disrespectful at all. I mean, if you're going to use your assets, stick 'em on display like that, it means you welcome folks poking fun at 'em. Indeed?

Plus, it plays on her self-styled reputation as the quintessential Boomer blogger, eh? "Back off. The Beatles are mine!" Me? I'm just hoping somebody hits her tip jar, soliciting her to slurp down a ice-cold popsicle stick***, akin to the creamy egg salad she ate for pay.

And the sad thing is: the commenter putting her up to that stunt and started the bidding? 3 disabled kids in the home! Now you tell me if those children could have used the $50 in some way better than Boom-Boom. Not too classy to take money from (handicapped) babes, if you ask me; I kept waiting for her to publically decline that one, but go figure.

*** Yeah, I'm kinda sick like that. Though I do skip the "Look at me! Look at me, V-Logs." Especially hoping that creamy egg salad thing would pass quickly, no such luck. I mean, she was my professor, and it's disheartening to see her perform for cash like a carnie, like that. Similar in a way to that J.Geils seeing 'em out of the classroom song: "My blood runs cold! My memory has just been sold... Boom-Boom is the centerfold!"

Soldiers of fortune = fortunate sons.

By DEBORAH HASTINGS, AP National Writer

"I understand this is war," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., whose efforts for greater contractor accountability led to an amendment in next year's Pentagon spending bill. "But that's absolutely no excuse for letting this very large force of armed private employees, dare I say mercenaries, run around without any accountability to anyone."
...

There are now nearly as many private contractors in Iraq as there are U.S. soldiers — and a large percentage of them are private security guards equipped with automatic weapons, body armor, helicopters and bullet-proof trucks.

They operate with little or no supervision, accountable only to the firms employing them. And as the country has plummeted toward anarchy and civil war, this private army has been accused of indiscriminately firing at American and Iraqi troops, and of shooting to death an unknown number of Iraqi citizens who got too close to their heavily armed convoys.

Not one has faced charges or prosecution.

There is great confusion among legal experts and military officials about what laws — if any — apply to Americans in this force of at least 48,000.

They operate in a decidedly gray legal area. Unlike soldiers, they are not bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Under a special provision secured by American-occupying forces, they are exempt from prosecution by Iraqis for crimes committed there.

The security firms insist their employees are governed by internal conduct rules and by use-of-force protocols established by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. occupation government that ruled Iraq for 14 months following the invasion.

But many soldiers on the ground* — who earn in a year what private guards can earn in just one month — say their private counterparts should answer to a higher authority, just as they do. More than 60 U.S. soldiers in Iraq have been court-martialed on murder-related charges involving Iraqi citizens.
---------------

* "It ain't me, it ain't me,
I ain't no fortunate one."

How 'bout those Lutherans??

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) passed a resolution at its annual assembly urging bishops to refrain from disciplining pastors who are in "faithful committed same-gender relationships."

The resolution passed by a vote of 538-431.

"The Church ... has just said 'Do not do punishments'," said Phil Soucy, spokesman for Lutherans Concerned, a gay-lesbian rights group within the church. "That is huge."