I must have missed something.
Monthly Archives: November 2009
The ultimate Poker Face mash-up
If you have been watching this blog, you have seen the various versions of Poker Face, by Lady GaGa. Here is the ultimate mash-up of all the versions (so far).
Microsoft, this is just sad
Have you ever been in an Apple store? Can you imagine this whole sad enterprise happening there? Yes, Microsoft can copy the tables, the floor (although Apple has moved to stone), the colored T-Shirts (although Apple has since moved to a single color), name tags hung around the neck and the entire look and feel of the physical space. But if Apple employees were to dance they would certainly look the part, unlike the pained expressions on most of these folks. Notice how it really draws in the crowds from the mall.
Andrew Sullivan on a fearless President
Andrew Sullivan makes an eloquent argument in favor of civil trials of terrorists. Read the whole thing, but here is an excerpt:
When you listen to the Fox News right speak about this, they reveal amazing levels of fear. They have been truly spooked by these men with long beards and chilling eyes. They are so scared of them they are willing to drop any and all legal principles that the West has historically used with respect to mass murderers. Their fear brought them to institute torture, and to engage in mass brutality against prisoners of war in every theater of combat in a manner that will tragically taint the honor of the US military for a very long time. It led them to establish Gitmo, to create for the world a reverse symbol of the Statue of Liberty, and imprint it on the minds and in the consciences of an entire generation of human beings, whose view of America will never be the same.
It made speedy prosecution of any of those who allegedly plotted and planned 9/11 impossible – and will make actual prosecution of any of them extremely hard. It turns out, then, that the primary (if not the only) thing we had to fear – was fear itself. It was our fear that gave al Qaeda so many propaganda victories.
And it is the refusal to be afraid that reflects the decision to bring this fanatic mass murderer back to the scene of the crime, to remind the world, all these years later, of why he is on trial, to restore a patriotic pride in the system we have, a system which it is al Qaeda’s goal to destroy.
I believe this is the best symbolic answer to 9/11: a trial, with due process, after tempers have calmed somewhat, that exposes this evil for all it truly was. And also reveals the tragedy of an American government that lost its nerve and has now, under a new president, regained it.
Creative advertising
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Just for fun: the latest Lady Gaga/Poker Face cover
The boys of South Park pick up the challenge. (via Andrew Sullivan)
Look who is in favor of Gitmo detainees in the US
And they are also in favor of civil court trial of terrorists.
Who could they be? How about Grover Norquist (President, Americans for Tax Reform), Bob Barr (former Republican Congressman) and David Keene (Chairman of the American Conservative Union). Oh my!
And they say there are tired of Republican “scaremongering” on these issues.
Why do they favor this approach? Simply to restore Constitutional government.
More on their website here. A full list of the signatories is available here.
Needless to say, I believe that this is a terrific approach and I appreciate the notables who have signed on to the cause.
Terrorism prosecutions: a report from the DOJ
For those concerned about the likelihood of success in the upcoming 9/11 prosecutions in New York, you should understand that the DOJ believes it can be successful. For example, the United States Department of Justice, in a June, 2006, report, outlined its overwhelming success in prosecuting terrorism suspects in the United States courts. I would encourage reading at least the Executive Summary section of the report, which includes this:
Our international terrorism and terrorism-related cases draw on the full range of criminal charges available in the federal criminal code, according to the facts and circumstances of each case. The material support statutes have been a cornerstone of our success in terrorism financing cases as well as in a wide range of other cases addressing all types of support to terrorism. Our effective use of these statutes has allowed us to intervene at the early stages of terrorist planning, before a terrorist act occurs. We also have effectively used other terrorism and weapons of mass destruction statutes, and have drawn on more general statutes, such as immigration fraud and false statement offenses, where they apply in terrorism investigations. These statutes of more general application have been so important to our disruption efforts that U.S. Attorneys’ Offices around the country have undertaken numerous initiatives to expand their use of these statutes to further our prevention strategy.
Our successful prosecutions have produced cooperating defendants who have, in turn, provided intelligence information to investigators, prosecutors and national security officials, leading to further investigation, disruption and prosecution. This is one of a number of classic criminal enforcement approaches discussed below. Cooperation with our foreign partners has led to counterterrorism successes in foreign courts as well as in our own, and we discuss some of these cases in which such cooperation has been critical to success.
As for those concerned about the defendants making a spectacle out of the trial, and using it as a platform, I would ask why you believe that the statements from such individuals are more powerful than a presentation of the evidence against them in open court? Is our country (or our system of criminal justice) so fragile that it cannot stand strongly against the words of killers?
Further, compare the results obtained in terrorism cases in the courts versus the record of military convictions as of November 2008.
Although some have defended the commissions as an efficient form of military justice, their track record in prosecuting terrorism cases has been abysmal. Since their establishment, the commissions have concluded only three cases, two after trials and one based on a guilty plea. During the same time period, the federal courts have tried more than 107 terrorism cases, obtaining 145 convictions. Several defendants have been sentenced to life in prison.
9/11 trial: American justice restored
Hold the trial of alleged 9/11 plotters in civil court, using American standards for criminal justice, and in New York, a scene of the attack, is an opportunity to show the world that our criminal justice system can handle the hardest cases, and at the same time provide defendants with fairness and openness. The complexity will be high, but the return to respect for the rule of law makes the effort worthwhile.
From an editorial in today’s New York Times:
Republican lawmakers and the self-promoting independent senator from Connecticut, Joseph Lieberman, pounced on the chance to appear on television. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they said military tribunals are a more secure and appropriate venue for trying terrorism suspects. Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a former judge who should have more regard for the law, offered the absurd claim that Mr. Obama was treating the 9/11 conspirators as “common criminals.”
There is nothing common about them — or Mr. Holder’s decision. Putting the five defendants on public trial a few blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center is entirely fitting. Experience shows that federal courts are capable of handling high-profile terrorism trials without comprising legitimate secrets, national security or the rule of law. Mr. Bush’s tribunals failed to hold a single trial.
Headline of the day
Irish priest kidnapped in Philippines released by MILF
–(from The Christian Science Monitor via TPM)
President Obama: unscripted
President Obama walked through a section of Arlington National Cemetery on Veteran’s Day, following the official events marking the commemoration. He happened to run into a reporter from the New York Daily News who was there visiting the graves of friends. The reporter’s account of the interaction that occurred is very moving. Here is an excerpt but be sure to read the entire piece. Also below is a video of the reporter later on MSNBC.
The President and First Lady Michelle Obama emerged from their armored limousine hatless in the frigid downpour and took a slow stroll into the soggy rows of white marble headstones.
They stopped first at the grave of Medal of Honor recipient Ross McGinnis, an Army private who threw himself on a grenade in Iraq three years ago to save four buddies.
A sad-faced woman reached for Obama’s hand and pointed him to a nearby plot.
The face of another woman – who had grimly sat in a folding chair for hours next to a headstone she’d arranged flowers around – suddenly broadened into a smile as she stood to embrace Obama and thank him for paying his respects.
She was so overcome with emotion that a soldier from the Army’s Old Guard had to console her afterward.
The President patted backs of a dozen other Gold Star relatives and troops visiting buddies now in the ground.
He gave hugs. He shook wet, chilly hands. He wanted to know something about each fallen warrior.
He began to slowly trudge back toward the motorcade – and to another White House huddle with his war council, which is advising him whether to send up to 40,000 additional troops into harm’s way in Afghanistan.
Fun with a triangle
This is very cool. Especially the finale. (h/t Laughing Squid)
Carrie Prejean loses it
The Lloyd’s Prayer
Below is the Lloyd’s prayer (Lloyd being Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman).
THE LLOYD’s Prayer
Our Chairman,
Who Art At Goldman,
Blankfein Be Thy Name.
The Rally’s Come. God’s Work Be Done
On Earth As There’s No Fear Of Correction.
Give Us This Day Our Daily Gains,
And Bankrupt Our Competitors
As You Taught Lehman and Bear Their Lessons.
And Bring Us Not Under Indictment.
For Thine Is The Treasury,
The House And The Senate
Forever and Ever.
Goldman.(via The Big Picture)
More on Sean Hannity
According to the New York Times, Sean Hannity is expected to address the blatant misuse of video from earlier demonstration to bolster his case on Fox News, as highlighted earlier today on this blog.
Fox News would not comment on the use of the video Wednesday beyond having a spokeswoman say: “Sean will address this on his show tonight.”