Magpie

Saturday, November 11

You never know when those homosexuals are about!

From the bottomless archive that is YouTube:

From the cars, I'd date the film at about 1958 or 1959. The homophobia, of course, is timeless.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:43 PM | Get permalink

What a difference an election can make.

One of the more craven acts of the current US Congress was to toss out a couple of centuries of habeas corpus law by approving Dubya's Military Commissions Act. Under that law, prisoners held by the US on suspicion of terrorism are barred from using the federal courts to appeal their indefinite 'detention.' According to a report in the the California Journal, one of the first actions of the new Democratic majority in the US Senate may be to repair some of the damage caused to the Constitution by the Military Commissions Act.

According to the paper, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont is currently working on a bill that would restore the right of habeas corpus to terrorism suspects. Since Leahy is expected to become chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the new Congress, his intent to push for partial repeal of the Military Commissions Act is not an idle threat. If passed by Congress, such a bill would put legislators on a collision course with Dubya — a collision that this magpie would enjoy watching, I might add.

There's more here.

Via Talk Left.

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:56 PM | Get permalink

Who needs regular Firefox?

When you can have Microsoft Firefox 2007?

Box for Microsoft Firefox 2007

Look! It's the browser of your dreams!

Someone has way too much time on their hands. Good thing, too.

Via MetaFilter.

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:33 PM | Get permalink

It looks like that proverbial door is hitting Rummy's ass on his way out of Dubya's administration.

Check this out:

New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of [former US defense secretary Donald] Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The plaintiffs in the case include 11 Iraqis who were prisoners at Abu Ghraib, as well as Mohammad al-Qahtani, a Saudi held at Guantanamo, whom the U.S. has identified as the so-called "20th hijacker" and a would-be participant in the 9/11 hijackings. As TIME first reported in June 2005, Qahtani underwent a "special interrogation plan," personally approved by Rumsfeld, which the U.S. says produced valuable intelligence. But to obtain it, according to the log of his interrogation and government reports, Qahtani was subjected to forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, prolonged stress positions, sleep deprivation and other controversial interrogation techniques.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that one of the witnesses who will testify on their behalf is former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the one-time commander of all U.S. military prisons in Iraq. Karpinski — who the lawyers say will be in Germany next week to publicly address her accusations in the case — has issued a written statement to accompany the legal filing, which says, in part: "It was clear the knowledge and responsibility [for what happened at Abu Ghraib] goes all the way to the top of the chain of command to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ."

Time has much more here.

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:21 PM | Get permalink

Friday, November 10

Another expedition into tinfoil hat territory.

My favorite post election paranoid rumor (which I've heard a number of places, including Thom Hartmann's show on the Air America Radio station here in Portland) goes something like this:

Since the Democrats have control of both houses of Congress, the GOP legislative agenda is dead in the water.
At the same time, the Democrats have a great bully pulpit both for pushing their own agenda and for making the GOP look bad.
In addition, there's the strong possibility that the Dems will hold investigations into Dubya administration activities — and it's likely that such investigations will make the GOP look even worse.
In the meantime, Republicans have the 2008 elections to plan for and, barring some unpredictable misstep by the Dems, their situation in that election isn't looking good — both in terms of further losses in the Senate and problems for the eventual presidential nominee.
Sometime in the next 6 to 12 months, VP Cheney will resign his office because of 'health problems,' allowing Dubya to nominate a new VP and thus annoint a political successor.
Whoever is chosen to be the new VP then has a leg up on getting the GOP presidential nomination in 2008, thus avoiding a messy nomination struggle and improving the Republicans' overall chances for retaining the presidency and regaining control of the Senate.

One obvious critique of the scenario is that, by taking Cheney our of office, Dubya loses his primary insurance against impeachment — fear of a Cheney presidency. But, hey, this is tinfoil hat stuff, and it doesn't really have to make sense.

But given how Dubya's White House and the GOP run things, tinfoil hat speculation has sometimes turned into political realities. Even some of the really paranoid stuff.<

| | Posted by Magpie at 7:21 AM | Get permalink

Thursday, November 9

Ack! Another busy day at work.

But I have time to pass on the news that GOP senator Conrad Burns has thrown in the towel in Montana, ensuring that Democrat Jon Tester will take office in January. With Republican George Allen's expected concession announcement coming up in about an hour (at noon, Pacific time), Democrats now have the 51 seats they need to re-take control of the Senate.

Allowing, of course, that jerk Joe Lieberman doesn't decide to cross the aisle.

At any rate, I'll try to post more about stuff this evening. You know what to do in the meantime.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:08 AM | Get permalink

Wednesday, November 8

I love getting good news.

And, as far as good news goes, it's hard to beat hearing that Fox News has called the Montana senate race for Democrat Jon Tester. It really must have hurt them to do that, too. [Sounds of gloating in the background]

Tester's apparent victory means that the Dems will gain control of the US Senate after the results in Virginia are confirmed (which seems very likely, although the legal battle before that confirmation will undoubtedly be a might one). At the very worst, the Senate will break 50?50, meaning that VP Dick Cheney will be a very busy man. As a friend points out, at least Cheney's having to spend time at the Senate casting tie-breaking votes will keep him someplace where he's unlikely to shoot anyone accidentally.

Unfortunately, this is probably all I'll have time to post until some time this evening, as my 'real' job just dumped a ton of work on me.

In the meantime, go check out what's being said on some of those fine blogs listed off there to your left, and enjoy the fact that the GOP has finally lost a big one.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:16 AM | Get permalink

Tuesday, November 7

If you haven't already heard.

The Democrats have have retaken control of the House of Representatives for the first time since the GOP's 'Contract with America' sweep in 1994. The only question now is how big the Dems' margin will be.

It's unclear whether control of the Senate will shift, however. Six races are still undecided and (to me, at least) I don't think things look good. My guess is that the new Senate will have 51 Republicans and 49 Democrats — still a marked improvement over the current line-up.

But back in the House, I have to say that 'Madame Speaker' certainly has a nice ring to it.

| | Posted by Magpie at 8:30 PM | Get permalink

A good omen!

Any day that General Glut comes back from a l–o–n–g hiatus isn't going to be a good one for Dubya and his minions. (If you don't know the General, he's one of the best economic bloggers around. And definitely not one of those centrists!)

All of a sudden, I'm far more optimistic about the results of today's election.

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:02 AM | Get permalink

You gotta love the BBC.

From the current front page of the BBC News site:

Portion of BBC News website front page

Couldn't have said it better myself!

Now get out there and vote so that we can make sure that Mr Velcro fails his test badly. Really badly.

| | Posted by Magpie at 7:30 AM | Get permalink

More bad election news for Dubya and the GOP.

But not from today's US elections (although that may happen, too, if we're lucky).

No, this bad news comes from Central America, where one of the US right wing's favorite bogeymen is making his political comeback.

Daniel Ortega and Jimmy Carter after a meeting in Managua,
as election results show an apparent Sandinista victory. [Photo: Dario Lopez-Mills/AP]

According to the latest returns, Sandinista candidate Daniel Ortega is headed toward a first-round victory in Nicaragua's elections. Reuters reports that Ortega currently has over 38 percent of the vote, with 60 percent of the ballots counted. Ortega leads his nearest opponent by over 8 percent. To avoid a run-off election, Ortega needs to win at least 35 percent of the vote and beat his closest opponent by at least 5 points. Despite early White House spin claiming 'irregularities' in the polling, international observers (including those from the OAS and Carter Center) agree that Nicaragua's election was largely problem-free.

Ortega headed Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government during the 1980s. That government was the target of a US-backed insurgency, and was much reviled by President Reagan and his administration. Many of those Reaganistas are now part of Dubya's regime.

If I were Daniel Ortega, I'd be very happy that Dubya's administration has its hands full dealing with Iraq right now.

| | Posted by Magpie at 2:36 AM | Get permalink

Get ready for those election results. And those exit polls.

It's Tuesday, folks, which means that it's election day for those of us in the USA. Every seat in the House of Representatives is up for grabs, along with one-third of the seats in the Senate. Not to mention a slew of governorships, state and local ballot measures, and other races.

The last polls we've heard sound pretty good for the Democrats, but since the accuracy of polling always goes into the toilet at the last minute, I'm not holding my breath.

In just over 13 hours (as I write this), polls will start closing and talking heads on local and national television and radio will start telling you about exit polls even before the 'real' election results start coming in. Lest you get too excited or too depressed as you watch or listen, here are some words of wisdom about exit polls from Walter Shapiro:

The most important thing to remember as the anchors invoke the exit polls as holy writ is that there are no surveys whatsoever for individual House races. That's zilch, zero, zed. In short, we will not have on Election Night any reliable gauge to tell us for certain why voters made their decisions in contested House races. All the networks will be able to provide is a national survey that makes no distinction between the 375 districts where the outcome of the House race was preordained and the roughly 60 hard-fought contests. Needless to say, this limitation in the data will not prevent anyone from making sweeping generalizations about the meaning of the 2006 elections. But it might prevent you from believing them.

Often lost in the wrangling over exit polls is what crude instruments they actually are. When it comes to divining the hidden motivations of voters, exit polls are about as reliable as the shotgun that Porky Pig uses to go hunting. The list of questions has to be brief because most voters will not stand around on a chilly November day, with an illegally parked car or a squalling 2-year-old, answering a five-page questionnaire. Instead, this year the exit polls will be asking blunder-buss questions like, "How important was same-sex marriage for your vote for the House?" or "How important was the war in Iraq for your vote for the House?" Useful data -- especially since the only people polled are actual voters -- but far from the last word on the 2006 elections.

Via Salon.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:35 AM | Get permalink

Monday, November 6

The Saddam verdict.

Billmon seems to think there's something rather suspicious about the timing. I mean, just because the US sponsored a kangaroo court instead of following recognized international judicial procedures doesn't mean the verdict was rigged. Does it?

Analysts said they were also startled by the timing of the verdict, which came just days before a critical U.S. mid-term election that has turned into a de facto referendum on the Iraq War.

"Surely the Iraqi government must have understood the potential for this case to influence the domestic U.S. political situation and slightly improve the GOP's fading hopes of retaining a monopoly grip on power, thus avoiding any embarrassing and/or legally dangerous oversight hearings on the conduct of the war," said one analyst, who asked that his name be kept secret in order to conceal his identity. "And yet they went ahead and did it anyway. What were the odds of that?"

Still other analysts noted that the court made several controversial decisions -- such as barring a number of defense witness from taking the stand -- that seemed designed to hasten the trial's conclusion.

"If I didn't know better, I'd almost say the judges were trying to meet some sort of arbitrary deadline," said one Iraqi lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous in order to stay alive. "But that's simply not possible. Iraq, after all, is a country of laws, not men."

Likewise, historians and legal experts alike said they were mystified by the court's determination to prevent Saddam and the other Baath Party defendents from testifying or introducing evidence about the support they received from the U.S. government during Iran-Iraq War.

Definitely go over and read the rest of the post. It's the story that US media should have been running.

Via Whiskey Bar.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:30 PM | Get permalink

It's dirty tricks time.

For weeks, GOP spokespeople (including Karl Rove) have been blowing off the unfavorable poll numbers for their party's candidates, saying that their ground game in the last 72 hours before the election would turn things around. Now we know that at least part of this 'ground game' is really a 'phone game.'

As numerous media sources are reporting (including this AP story we found in the Boston Globe), voters in at least five states are being besieged by 'robo-calls' that, while seemingly coming from Democrats, are really from the GOP. These calls lie about the positions of Democratic candidates, often come a half dozen times in the same evening, and have been reported as arriving as late as 2:30 AM. The obvious person is to get voters pissed off at the Democrats, in the hope that they'll vote GOP or, at least, stay home.

Bruce Jacobson, a software engineer from Ardmore, Pa., received three prerecorded messages in four hours. Each began, "Hello, I'm calling with information about Lois Murphy," the Democrat running against two-term incumbent Rep. Jim Gerlach in the Philadelphia-area district.

"Basically, they go on to slam Lois," said Jacobson, who has filed a complaint with the FCC because the source of the call isn't immediately known.

FCC rules say all prerecorded messages must "at the beginning of the message, state clearly the identity of the business, individual, or other entity that is responsible for initiating the call." During or after the message, they must give the telephone number of the caller.

"The way they're sent is deceptive. The number of calls is harassing. The way her stances are presented in these stories is deliberately misleading and deceptive," said Karlyn Messinger, another Murphy supporter from Penn Valley, Pa., who filed a complaint with the FCC.

NRCC spokesman Ed Patru denied any illegal intent.

"All of our political calls are in compliance with the law," Patru said.

Not so, said the Democrats.

"They are violating the regulations that were set up," said Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who said the DCCC employed one robocall this cycle and paid $500 for it.

"I think the real point here is that the Republicans are using a desperate campaign tactic that is misleading, at worst violating the law and at best is a page out of Karl Rove's playbook," Psaki said. "They clearly are attempting to mislead voters."

The desperation of the GOP shows through in the fact that, in some states, they've been calling people on 'Do Not Call' registries. In New Hampshire, the National Republican Campaign Committee has agreed to stop making robo-calls to people on the list after at least one person filed a complaint with the state's attorney general. New Hampshire law provides for a fine of US $5000 per call for violations of the state's anti-phone soliciting laws.

| | Posted by Magpie at 7:18 AM | Get permalink

Easy money.

Okay. Maybe not that easy.

Via The Sideshow.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:15 AM | Get permalink

Getting ready for Tuesday's election results.

If you're like me, you'll going to be totally geeking out (and, probably, chewing your nails) as the returns come in tomorrow night. Back in 2004, one of the things that helped keep me sane was a really great cheat sheet put together by Dan Aibel over at Contrapositive. Not only did it tell me what returns to be looking for when, but it also gave me some good clues as to what particular results would mean in terms of the big picture.

I got some email from Dan the other day, pointing to this year's cheat sheet. I'm printing myself out a copy for tomorrow night, and you should, too. You'll find the cheat sheet here.

More: And if the Contrapositive cheat sheet isn't quite what you're looking for, try this election night helper over at Sandwich Repair Kit.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:01 AM | Get permalink

Is your slow internet connection cramping your style?

You need WiFi Speed Spray! It'll clean up that slow connection at the speed of light!

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:00 AM | Get permalink

Sunday, November 5

Mental health day.

I've been around too many computers this week. New job & all that.

Back tomorrow.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:33 AM | Get permalink