Dawn: You're not fleeing. You're... moving at a brisk pace. Buffy: Quaintly referred to in some cultures as the Big Scaredy Run Away.

'Touched'


Natter Area 51: The Truthiness Is in Here  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


Nora Deirdre - Apr 19, 2007 10:32:58 am PDT #3490 of 10001
I’m responsible for my own happiness? I can’t even be responsible for my own breakfast! (Bojack Horseman)

oh, MY, Cindy.


tommyrot - Apr 19, 2007 10:42:31 am PDT #3491 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Excellent LA Times editorial on what's at stake with the administration's politicization of the Justice Dept:

AS ATTY. GEN. Alberto R. Gonzales takes to Capitol Hill to testify today, it's worth keeping in mind what this whole imbroglio is really about. It's not about whether Gonzales and his minions lied to Congress and the public. (They did, repeatedly.) It's not even about whether the Justice Department improperly fired federal prosecutors. (It did, of course.) It's about whether the Bush administration sought to subvert democracy by turning the federal judicial system into a weapon of the ruling party.

Many people think of democracy as free elections, some other basic rights (like free speech) and not much more. But really, that's only the beginning. There are plenty of countries that have free and fair elections and yet are clearly not democratic because their ruling parties have a permanent, immovable hammerlock on power.

One key thing that separates strong democracies (such as the United States) from weak democracies (such as Russia) is that the latter use the police power of the state as a tool of the ruling party. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin doesn't mind throwing his enemies in jail or sending out the police to break up protests.

I realize that the United States is not becoming Russia. But isn't this behavior, in a sense, what the Bush administration stands accused of? If true, it's an incredibly serious violation.

The prosecutor scandal first surfaced in New Mexico, where Republican officials and the Bush administration repeatedly pressured the U.S. attorney to bring electoral fraud charges against Democrats before the election. The prosecutor, David Iglesias, refused and, suspiciously, was subsequently fired.

But President Bush may have had more success elsewhere in cases that have gotten less publicity. In Wisconsin last year, for instance, a federal prosecutor indicted an appointee of a Democratic governor on a charge so spurious that a federal appeals court unanimously threw out the conviction this month, calling the evidence "beyond thin." But the conviction, and the appearance of corruption, played a major role in November's gubernatorial race. The U.S. attorney in Wisconsin who brought this flimsy case had originally been targeted for dismissal by the Bush administration but was later removed from the list of those to be fired.

Communications professors Donald Shields and John Cragan have found that, since Bush took office, U.S. attorneys have investigated or indicted 298 Democratic officeholders and only 67 Republicans. This massive disparity, which I have not seen any Republican even try to explain, is deeply suspicious.

And there are other ways in which Republicans have tried to use the legal system to win partisan disputes. In 2003, Texas Democrats fled the state to try to thwart a highly partisan Republican redistricting plan. GOP leaders sent state troopers to bring them back, and a state police officer even sought the aid of the Department of Homeland Security to track the plane carrying the Democrats. In 2004, Democrats in the House Ways and Means Committee left a hearing to hold their own caucus elsewhere in the Capitol. Republican Bill Thomas of Bakersfield, then the chairman of the committee, ordered the Capitol police to break up the meeting.

The New York Times reported in March that New York City, led by a Republican mayor eager for his party to enjoy a smooth convention, had its police spy on all manner of groups planning demonstrations at the 2004 Republican National Convention. The espionage was carried out under the rubric of anti-terrorism, but many of the groups targeted (such as the satirical street theater group Billionaires for Bush) had not the slightest whiff of violent intent.

It would be very easy to overreact to all these things and conclude that our democracy is imperiled or that Republicans are wannabe Putins. But almost nobody seems to be overreacting.

Most people are under-reacting. Allowing the security (continued...)


tommyrot - Apr 19, 2007 10:42:39 am PDT #3492 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

( continues...) apparatus of the state to help tilt elections is an extremely grave precedent. When the line of acceptable behavior can be moved without much protest, it often can be moved further the next time.

No, we're not becoming Russia. But becoming just a little bit like Russia still ought to be considered a major scandal.

[link]


erikaj - Apr 19, 2007 10:51:26 am PDT #3493 of 10001
Always Anti-fascist!

Hate McCain. Hate having him as my Senator worse. And all I know about Satan is "Down In the Hole" That'd be funny...I go on my rampage and leave that as my note, and everybody wonders what it means, and it means I love HBO.


brenda m - Apr 19, 2007 10:53:35 am PDT #3494 of 10001
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there

But President Bush may have had more success elsewhere in cases that have gotten less publicity. In Wisconsin last year, for instance, a federal prosecutor indicted an appointee of a Democratic governor on a charge so spurious that a federal appeals court unanimously threw out the conviction this month, calling the evidence "beyond thin." But the conviction, and the appearance of corruption, played a major role in November's gubernatorial race. The U.S. attorney in Wisconsin who brought this flimsy case had originally been targeted for dismissal by the Bush administration but was later removed from the list of those to be fired.

And note that the woman in question spent the time between the conviction (just before the election) and the appeals court ruling (a week or two ago) in jail.


tommyrot - Apr 19, 2007 11:01:01 am PDT #3495 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

And note that the woman in question spent the time between the conviction (just before the election) and the appeals court ruling (a week or two ago) in jail.

Oh, I had heard that but I didn't connect it with this editorial.

Damn. I don't want to say the Bush administration has been "pushing us towards a Republican dictatorship", but as the editorial noted, the ruling power using the courts and police as weapons against their opponents is one thing that happens in countries that are democracies in name only....


shrift - Apr 19, 2007 11:23:34 am PDT #3496 of 10001
"You can't put a price on the joy of not giving a shit." -Zenkitty

I am become snotmonster.


§ ita § - Apr 19, 2007 11:27:02 am PDT #3497 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

The angels sang when I clicked on that link, Cindy.

I am home because I forgot my wallet. I am home for as long as it takes to a) heat and eat a patty b) find my damned money clip.


tommyrot - Apr 19, 2007 11:31:15 am PDT #3498 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

I just purchases the Stephen King book "Firestarter," which I read once back in the early '80s.

Anyone remember Omni magazine? Anyone remember how they excerpted parts of "Firestarter" in one issue? (I think when the book came out, in 1980.)


§ ita § - Apr 19, 2007 11:34:31 am PDT #3499 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

I used to buy Omni regularly. Then I switched to one of the small format SF anthologies. Don't recall the name.

Found the money clip. It was in my bad the whole time.

Subconscious definitely wanted patties.