Non Sequitur of the Day: Kennedy Family Edition

A very cool Jack Kennedy clip reel:

Some Rationalizations Are Just Evergreens

"I was just following orders."

Now.

Now, on more local scale.

Then.

In a politically divided country, this is all quite tricky and potentially sticky, looking to criminalize the actions of CIA agents when under the management of a bunch of malicious doofuses will only be further divisive.

I still think going the truth and reconciliation commission route would be the best for all concerned. Facing the truth with no political gain on the line -- even if only perceived -- would truly be Change to believe in.

Non Sequitur of the Day: VPILF Redux

Governor Sarah Palin strikes again, saying that, swear to God, she wouldn't resign as president if the going got tough in terms of ethics inquiries, as she has in Alaska, because the White House's "department of law would. . . automatically throw them out."

No, there is no federal "Department of Law," while there is one in Alaska, so to be fair, perhaps she misspoke, as some of the governor's her wingnut apologists have suggested.

However, in order to misspeak, one must first be able to speak properly, which for Ms. Palin, is seriously in doubt. My favorite from today: "I know I know I know[.]"

Further, it appears that even some of the lady's supporters have given up:

Gov. Sanford's Arc of Hypocrisy, in Graphics!

Look, dude, I don't care if you hooked up with a llama when you were in Argentina, as long as you are competent in your position and you aren't a raging hypocrite about it.

So, when you say this about your actions, comparing yourself to King David(!):



Which has begat this:



When you once upon a time said this about a fellow sinner:



You then should check out this piece about this extremely interesting graphic that indicates Red Staters "sin" (as they would define it) more than Blue Staters.



And, then, in conclusion, dear governor, you should remember this quote from the Bible: "Judge not, that ye be not judged." ~ Matthew 7:1.

If you live near the Great Lakes, a huge Asian Carp wants to kick your ass

After having the previous regime not even commit the financial equivalent of a decent power forward for the protection and repair of the Great Lakes from invasive species, the Obama administration has appointed an EPA czar for the region, with a half-billion of funding to fix the damage done, and prevent more damage from occurring.

The biggest threat on the horizon -- which a client who lived near a lovely mid-Michigan lake didn't know about -- is a wave of big, jumpy Asian Carp who've been working their way up the Mississippi.

And how did such illegal fish get into the Mississippi. Why, catfish farmers in Louisiana and Texas imported these floating garbage filters to clean their hatchery pens, and then they escaped during floods.

I have to think they'd heard of chicken wire down there.

And one wonders why there are southern stereotypes.

Let's hope that the much-discussed electric barrier for the Chicago River gets built, and fast, or these fellers are going to have a whole new playing field around the Mitten.

And it'd be a total buzzkill for Jobbie Nooner.

Monica Conyers: Batshit scoundrels are forever

Samuel Johnson's famous 18th century quote is, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

For Detroit City Council President Monica Conyers -- who clearly has some 'splainin' to do , Lucy -- she has careened past the refuge of patriotism to the sheltering arms of Our Her Lord, as broken down in insightful and funny sad takes by Laura Berman and Bill McGraw. (Bonus points to the Freep headline writer for the the namecheck of the Judy Blum chick-lit-with-training-wheels classic; well played, sir/madam.)

Remember to take to heart Monica's bashittery solemn words: "If you're not praying for The 60 Second Blog me, then you're just adding to the problem."

Behold the train wreck:

Non Sequitur of the Day: Sunday morning news talk shows (and relationships) edition

"Do you hear me? /

Do you care?"

Why didn't Michael Eisner ever greenlight a "Pollyanna" movie?

I enjoy Esquire magazine, especially its "What I've Learned" feature. Going through the magazine pile, I caught up with ex-Disney chief Michael Eisner's take in the April 2009 edition, wherein he opined:

--- snip ---

The auto industry situation is incredibly complex, and it would be a little silly of me to try to reduce it. But you could say it was like the entertainment business. They didn't make movies that people wanted to see. They had the infrastructure, they had the technology, they had the manpower. They just didn't make vehicles that enough people wanted to buy. They ended up trying to protect their existing business and not concentrating on the future.

--- snip ---

Why, yes, that was silly. That's all easy to say from a guy in a business where new product development is a fraction of that for car companies, outsourcing animation is a bit easier than outsourcing car parts, and the health insurance legacy costs of the car industry have proven to be an ultimately debilitating quirk of post-World War II history, because our country has never realized that the U.S. and China are the only car-making countries where the government does not acknowledge that being healthy is a citizen's human right.

Talk about competitive disadvantages.

I've thought from the beginning of the auto company assistance: if the Feds had offered to take every employee and retiree the Big Detroit 3 auto companies cover with health insurance, and move them over to Medicare or a new subsidiary of it, the carmakers probably would have jumped at that, it would've been cheaper, and it would've been a good base for moving forward on long-overdue national health care.

Above: "Don't breathe too deeply. Those costumes? Cheap -- recycled asbestos. At least they're green, right?"

Penalty Killing as a Metaphor in Life

I proudly live in Detroit, where the economy is imploding, bigwigs gather annually in Mackinac to fiddle navel gaze meet to discuss solutions while the region burns, and hockey fans know enough to give a standing ovation to an ass-kicking penalty kill.

Darren Helms was the #1 star in last night's game, but he is a metaphor for what Detroit does best: persevere.

Behold:

Today's Mytholitics (TM): "Judicial Activism"

There is no such thing as "judicial activism," or "legislating from the bench." When judges act, they adjudicate objectively through the prisim of their personal legal philosophy, which creates a subjective result: by definition, courts must pick a winner.

On the other hand, when legislators act, they legislate. Similarly, judges' acts do, in fact, have repercussions, because they have to wade through the grey areas, or unclear language, or pandering unconstitutional provisions crafted by legislators who want to get re-elected by constituents who don't know any better than to buy into sound-bite buzzword catch phrases. And, yes, as Sonia Sotomayor said at a symposium (below), if appeals court judges do set "policy," it's because their written opinions have been followed to interpret the work of the above-described legislators since the beginning of the Republic.

She's a good nominee. Elections have consequeneces (though, some think not enough). I look forward to watching the Wingnut "culture war" get stirred up again, only to alienate the Hispanic electorate, and prove, yet again, how badly they are grasping at political and intellectual straws.

Experience is both a verb and a noun -- you have to do it to possess it

One must review past behavior in order to learn anything, whether as an individual or a nation.

Like I said yesterday.

And the drumbeat for America's moral and legal reconciliation continues:

=> Frank Rich today in NYT;

=> And Glen Greenwald yesterday at Salon.

How can we not look back at, and ponder, our behavior as a nation when it included acts of torture (including waterboarding) for which we prosecuted Japanese soldiers, resulting in their execution?

Non Sequitur of the Day: Tax Day Edition

"Should five per cent appear too small /

Be thankful I don’t take it all /

‘Cos I’m the Taxman"

For Detroit, a reminder of yet another wrongly chosen fork in the road

It appears the Ford Foundation is re-tooling its mission. In case you'd forgotten -- and Michigan AG Mike Cox (say it fast, tee-hee) didn't in 2006 and, since then, apparently has again -- the Ford Foundation was initially endowed by money made by noted Detroit-based auto manufacturer, Ford Motor Company. The foundation was originally operated out of Detroit, but as the Fords sought to gain credibility by including outworlders non-Detroiters on the board, they simultaneously lost control of the organization. When the Foundation physically moved to New York City in the 50s, it similarly abandoned expanded beyond the culture and needs of its Detroit birthpace.

I'm not saying they should not have moved. It's just that still having the nation's second largest endowment (at around $10 billion) operating out of Detroit might help make things better around here. Or, perhaps, things never would have gotten this bad.

With the early 1900s scattering of our big companies out of the center city and the mid-century dismantling of Detroit's public transit, losing the Ford Foundation is one of the top incidents that make a Detroiter with a sense of history wonder, What if?

If Batista had thought of this, Castro would've never had a chance

The U.S. has undertaken a loosening of restrictions on Americans' interactions with Cuba.

First, perhaps the Democrats being able to win Florida in a presidential election gives them comfort they can pull the new policy off without alienating the vibrant and passionate aging and shrinking due to death anti-Castro Cuban emigre population.

Two, Canada's had a rational Cuban policy for a long time and they seem to be doing fine with it.

Three, the way to just finish the job of getting the mob back to its rightful place running Habana casinos? Airdrop the equivalent of hundreds of malls' contents on the island, and sell the exclusive marketing rights in each product category to whichever company wants to get the initial foothold in the market.

Pop, computers, clothes, whatever. Get some retail sales going.

Think of it as a Caribbean stimulus package.

What exactly does Detroit have in common with Bozeman, Mr. Russian Smartypants?

Russian foreign policy strategist Igor Panarin has predicted that the U.S. will break up into rump states next year.

We may have problems in America, but that is definitely a WTF theory.

But, it's also not a new theory: check out this wiki describing this fine 1981 book (at left) by this author.

As has already been noted on The Internets, including by the insightful author, WaPo reporter Joel Garreau, Panarin has no sense of American regionalism, of where our lines naturally lie.

So, he's either clueless, a political hack, or just channeling Britain in the Middle East, c. WWI.

But if part of the U.S. does align with the EU, and it brings about topless beaches, well, then, I may just be down with that.

Adventures in Batshit Politicians: Motor City Edition

James Scott was crazy, Coleman (MFIC) Young was obnoxious, but the collective insane bloc of the Detroit City Council took the cake today. While fending off the ravenous hordes of no suburban whites determined to loot the city of its "jewels" who don't care enough about the city to want anything, they took time from from manning the barricade to serenade their sycophants with "Onward Christian Soldiers," as they prepare to save Cobo Hall from a deal that gives the city millions of dollars for a dilapidated conference center and veto over its future operations.

If Monica Conyers and Barbara Rose Collins can call out Mayor Ken Cockrel, Jr. for invoking the name of his father, they must be called out for invoking the name of Our Father.

Behold the batshit craziness:

Non Sequitur of the Day: Gambling Lingo As Political Shorthand Edition

"Double down."

From McCain's strategy in the stretch run of running for President, to the U.S. expansion in Afghanistan, to Rush Limbaugh continuing to act in a treasonous fashion (based on his standards during the last administration), I worry about the implicit suggestion that our politics exist on the same cultural and moral plane as blackjack.

At least it's new usage is grounded in the real world, unlike the prior buzzword in this vein, "re-double," especially when the user hadn't "doubled" in the first place.

It Takes a Village to Turn Eight Innocent Babies into Pariahs

I have a theory that I like to run by anti-choicers, which is: if it's God's will which ordains that no life, whatever its stage of development, be aborted, is it then not also God's will for a woman who is unable to conceive to stay that way, and contrary to His will to use artificial means to become pregnant? Though the result might be a bit harsh if an anti-choicer remains consistent, and if it is what it is, and science and medicine shouldn't mess around with the miracle of life, then, logically, it should cut both ways.

That being said, the schadenfreude on Octomom is becoming scary and unfortunate. There's all sorts of incompetent and/or psycho parents out there, and in any given neighborhood, there are probably anywhere between zero and 14 kids at risk from the stupidity of their parents. The only difference here is the density of their location and the fact that Octomom (who may well be an Angelina Jolie-ish half bubble off plum) and Octogram can't seem to stop searching for closure online before these kids' lives have really even opened.

Let's just get those kids raised well, in spite of the family.

(Above: Gee, if that's all it takes to be my doppelganger, I am bumming.)

Non Sequitur Idiom of the Day: Mortgage "Cram Down" Edition

From NYT: "Carrots and sticks."

Kwame Kilpatrick, Public Enemy Has Some Lyrics For You

I was not surprised when Kwame Kilpatrick:

• First ran for Mayor of Detroit, because was going to be term-limited, and in an odd year, his mother's campaign structure had nothing else to do;
• Was first elected, because America's First Hip-Hop Mayor was too irresistible for the voters to pass up;
• Was re-elected in 2005, because he was running a different race -- yes, that has multiple meanings -- than Freeman Hendrix;
• Was finally caught, because he'd believed his own hype;
• Initially denied everything, because he still believed his own hype;
• Still considered himself a victim, because narcissists do that;
• Complained about his jail time, because of all the above;
• And, finally, scored a sweet gig, regardless of his boss' supposed short leash (which all 2009 wage slaves have) because money and politics make the world go 'round.

As I like to say, know that we know what the players in that hiring are, it's just that the price as finally been set.

The one thing I was surprised by: how did he do all that texting with those big, beefy ex-lineman fingers.

Remarkable. All of it.