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Greg Saunders asks CNN to fire Nancy Grace:

Reliable “legal experts” don’t foam at the mouth when a lack of physical evidence keeps a suspect from being charged with a crime. In comparison to CNN’s legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, Grace’s show offers analysis akin to a torch-wielding leader of a lynch mob. Evidence, due process, and rule of law are moot on Grace’s show since the goal is never to discuss the legal process, but to seek vengeance against all criminals, regardless of their guilt.

…

There are some who might argue that Grace’s program exists to provoke discussion and that my reaction is proof that she “must be doing something right”. Well, if CNN’s goal is to move away from news gathering and analysis and turn their airwaves into a intellectually-stunted spectacle, then mission accomplished. But I’d like to give CNN the benefit of the doubt and not jump to the conclusion that they’d willingly throw away their reputation to a prurient thrill for the short-term gain of some advertiser revenue.

The Perrspectives Department of Homeland Sanity (DHS) continues to monitor the conservative threat level to America.

	Severe: Return to Middle Ages Likely
	High: Church and State to Merge
	Elevated: Bill of Rights at Risk
	Guarded: Upward Income Redistribution Underway
	Low: Justice and Reason Still Prevail

The current threat is severe:

Despite Bush poll numbers in low 30’s, GOP platform of “nothing to run on but fear itself” gets boost with UK airliner plot. Cheney on message with “if Lieberman loses, Al Qaeda wins.” Threat level raised from Yellow/Elevated (Bill of Rights at Risk).

The Bush Administration is the Vigilante Presidency, cleaning up the Middle East the same way the vigilantes cleaned up the old west — shootin’ first and demandin’ that everybody stop askin’ questions later.

A-yup. In this here modern world, we ain’t got time to figger out what’s true and what ain’t. Time’s a-wastin’, and the vigilantes always get their man.

An angry mob fatally beat a man whom they mistakenly thought was involved in the disappearance of their friend, shortly before police arrested and charged another person in the crime, police said.

Well, the vigilantes always get somebody.

I think them boys got a career in Republican politics ahead of ’em.

In these times of modern times, when you can’t tell your ACs from your DCs, aren’t we all looking for a little stopping power? — Firesign Theatre

Speaking of Bob Geiger, he’s reposted a piece he wrote last year called I Know This Little Boy In New Orleans. I didn’t know about Geiger’s blog last year, so I’m glad he reposted this. Go read the whole thing, please.

I know the little boy in this picture.

No, I don’t know him personally. But he is roughly the same age as my small son. This boy is beautiful, innocent, vulnerable and probably very scared in this photo.

I know this young boy.

New calamities, outrages and diversions rush at us every day — every hour, sometimes — each one dragging our attention away from the one before. They come so quickly, it seems, that we don’t have time to truly understand any one of these events. Inspired by a photo of a little boy stuck in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina, Gieger stopped the world for a moment, and probed for a deeper understanding.

Read it. And once you’ve read it, stop the world for another moment. Think about the Palestinian and Lebanese children under Israeli bombs, and about the Israeli children under Hezbollah and Hamas rockets and terror bombings. Think of the people whose homes and jobs and families were swept away by the Indian Ocean tsunami, or by earthquakes in Pakistan, or by “ethnic cleansing” in Darfur. Think of all the photos of missing faces tacked up in New York City by desperate friends and loved ones after the murderous attacks of 9/11. Think of ordinary people trying to live a decent life in Baghdad without becoming someone’s “collateral damage.”

Hurts, doesn’t it?

I have a friend who says “life is cheap” in the Mideast. During the Vietnam War, I heard it said that the Vietnamese don’t respect life the way we do. Sure. And as Daffy Duck once said, “I’m not like other people — pain hurts me.”

It’s no wonder the 24-hour news networks give us a relentless diet of inconsequential trivia rather than getting to the bottom of events that are killing hundreds of children today. It’s anesthesia.

Bob Geiger has another good collection of political cartoons.

Here’s one web page with some good quotes from Abraham Lincoln, and here’s another. (Unfortunately, they don’t often give the source of the quotes. Some things attributed to Lincoln are things he never said.)

Here are a few that seem timely, somehow:

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts.

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.

On Countdown Wednesday night, Keith Olbermann had some comments on Donald Rumsfeld’s Tuesday speech to the American Legion convention. By Thursday, it was all over the blogs. (Full transcript here.)

That about which Mr. Rumsfeld is confused is simply this: This is a democracy. Still. Sometimes just barely.

And, as such, all voices count — not just his.

Had he or his president perhaps proven any of their prior claims of omniscience — about Osama Bin Laden’s plans five years ago, about Saddam Hussein’s weapons four years ago, about Hurricane Katrina’s impact one year ago — we all might be able to swallow hard, and accept their “omniscience” as a bearable, even useful recipe, of fact, plus ego.

But, to date, this government has proved little besides its own arrogance, and its own hubris.

Mr. Rumsfeld is also personally confused, morally or intellectually, about his own standing in this matter. From Iraq to Katrina, to flu vaccine shortages, to the entire “Fog of Fear” which continues to envelop this nation, he, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their cronies have — inadvertently or intentionally — profited and benefited, both personally, and politically.

And yet he can stand up, in public, and question the morality and the intellect of those of us who dare ask just for the receipt for the Emperor’s New Clothes?

Olbermann ended with an extended quote from Edward R. Murrow:

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty,” he said, in 1954. “We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.

“We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular.”

Oh… my… God.

Via Crooks and Liars, a new way to cope with the losses imposed by war: Flat Daddies:

Maine National Guard members in Iraq and Afghanistan are never far from the thoughts of their loved ones.

But now, thanks to a popular family-support program, they’re even closer.

Welcome to the “Flat Daddy” and “Flat Mommy” phenomenon, in which life-size cutouts of deployed service members are given by the Maine National Guard to spouses, children, and relatives back home.

The Flat Daddies ride in cars, sit at the dinner table, visit the dentist, and even are brought to confession, according to their significant others on the home front.

I’m sure this program is well-intentioned. Maybe it even helps families cope. But, oh, my God… what are we doing to these people?

Jesus’ General thinks this is just the thing for George W. Bush:

I’m wondering if Our Leader should consider doing something similar. A lot of people think he doesn’t care about the men and women who are defending us against Islamic enslavement. They wonder why he has time for vacations (a whole year’s worth of vacation time in the first five years of his presidency) but is unable to free himself for a few hours to attend a soldier’s funeral a stones’s throw across the Potomac at Arlington.

It doesn’t have to be that way. With a dozen or so Flat Deciders™, he could attend nearly every soldier’s funeral. I doubt most people would even notice that he’s only a cardboard cut-out. Indeed, the fact that the Flat Decider™ is merely a cold, heartless, two-dimensional rendition of a real human being is what makes it so realistic.

Speaking to the American Legion Convention yesterday in Salt Lake City, George W. Bush said this:

On one side are those who believe in the values of freedom and moderation — the right of all people to speak, and worship, and live in liberty. And on the other side are those driven by the values of tyranny and extremism — the right of a self-appointed few to impose their fanatical views on all the rest.

I’m no fan of Mr. Bush, but this is one of the most forthright and incisive descriptions of this country’s current political environment that I’ve heard from anyone. For the first time, Bush acknowledges — what? Are you sure about that?

I’m sorry. My mistake. He — he was talking about the U.S. vs. the terrorists. The terrorists are the “self-appointed few,” see, and Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and that lot are the “freedom and moderation” guys. Seriously. Now, I can see the terrorist part — the guys who want to impose fundamentalist religious governments, with themselves saying what God’s will really is — that part totally works. But the other part? It seems to help if you squint a little and look at it really quickly out the corner of your eye.

Atrios has a chart of housing prices going back to 1890. The values are all adjusted for inflation, of course. Take a look, and then tell me: do you think the housing boom of recent years is likely to continue?

Electoral-vote.com is following this year’s Senate races. Democratic prospects for a Senate takeover aren’t looking good right now. I’d really like to blue-ify some of those pink-edged states, but my mission right now is to turn Ohio deep blue.

Republican Mike DeWine has a lot more campaign money than Democrat Sherrod Brown. Click here to contribute to Brown’s campaign.

My youth is long gone, but I’m holding onto my immaturity, by gosh. Just like Lakehead University:

A small Canadian university has sparked controversy with its recruitment drive by using posters and a website mocking US President George W Bush.

Lakehead University in northern Ontario set up www.yaleshmale.com in a bid to attract potential new students.

It shows a picture of Yale graduate Mr Bush with the caption: “Graduating from an Ivy League university doesn’t necessarily mean you’re smart.”

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“Lakehead is different. We believe the person you become after you graduate is even more important than the person you were when you enrolled.”

…

Student union president Isabelle Poniatowski told Reuters the campaign was low-brow and lacked class.

“It still strikes me as being very repugnant,” she said. “Lakehead has so many positive attributes that you could really sell to people that live down south.”

And what does a university have if it doesn’t have class?

Sure, this recruitment campaign is immature and inappropriate. Here’s to immaturity and inappropriateness.

My congress-being, Deborah Pryce, is at it again. This is the second campaign flyer she’s sent me at taxpayer expense. This one purports to be a “newsletter” to help her “stay in touch.” Apparently she only wants to stay in touch right around election time.

This is my favorite part of this mailing: Deb is “Spending Taxpayer Dollars Wisely”. I’ll bet she got a really good volume printing rate for this flyer.

Katherine Harris became famous in 2000, when, as Florida’s top election official, she did everything in her power to throw the presidential election to George W. Bush. (Her best efforts weren’t enough, and the Supreme Court had to step in to stop the counting of actual votes cast by actual voters lest Bush fall behind.)

Now she is a member of Congress and a candidate for U.S. Senate. From the Orlando Sentinal:

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris said this week that the separation of church and state is “a lie,” that God did not intend for the United States to be a “nation of secular laws” and that a failure to elect Christians to political office will allow lawmaking bodies to “legislate sin.”

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Separating religion and politics is “so wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers,” Harris said.

We know it’s not the voters who choose them in Katherine Harris’ world.

“Our rulers” may seem like strange terminology in a democracy, but it just flows off the tongue if you don’t believe in democracy.

Harris isn’t the only right-winger to believe there’s no separation of church and state. Here’s Jan LaRue, Chief Counsel of Concerned Women for America:

Well, you know, the interesting thing is, at the founding of our country, there were state churches. That’s what it’s all about in a country where the people get to rule, and if you’re in a state you don’t like, you get to move to another state.

And Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia:

government — however you want to limit that concept — derives its moral authority from God. It is the “minister of God” with powers to “revenge,” to “execute wrath,” including even wrath by the sword

And Thomas Jefferson:

governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

Wait a second! How’d he get in here?

Via Crooks and Liars: Bruce Schneier on what the terrorists want:

The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics. The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act.

And we’re doing exactly what the terrorists want.

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[O]ur job is to remain steadfast in the face of terror, to refuse to be terrorized. Our job is to not panic every time two Muslims stand together checking their watches. There are approximately 1 billion Muslims in the world, a large percentage of them not Arab, and about 320 million Arabs in the Middle East, the overwhelming majority of them not terrorists. Our job is to think critically and rationally, and to ignore the cacophony of other interests trying to use terrorism to advance political careers or increase a television show’s viewership.

The surest defense against terrorism is to refuse to be terrorized. Our job is to recognize that terrorism is just one of the risks we face, and not a particularly common one at that. And our job is to fight those politicians who use fear as an excuse to take away our liberties and promote security theater that wastes money and doesn’t make us any safer.