Stuff you can go to jail for today that was OK yesterday...

Fixer and I have sort of an ongoing contest to see which of California's and New York's legislatures is the more useless. It's close. It ebbs and flows depending on the day.

I'm claiming No. 1 today!

Go read some of the new laws going into effect today in California. You decide.

LATimes

California ushers in new laws limiting trans fats, the paparazzi and more

In 2010, hundreds of new rules will be enforced. Among them, a ban on shortening cows' tails; a $20,000 fine for human trafficking; and tougher penalties for mortgage fraud and watching dogfights.

There are many, some good, some kinda silly, but here's one that made me shake my head:

Vietnam veterans: Establishes an annual Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day on March 30.

At first I thought maybe this was long past due until I realized that some of those guys ain't back yet. Maybe about 2050 we'll get a law like this for Iraq and Afghanistan vets. And then another one in 2090 and...

I don't have a problem ...

With it in general, though I don't need the raucous laughter and pointing.

Have We Learned Anything from the Bush Years?

Washington's Blog, a 'recommended read'.

Fear makes people stupid.

It makes us unable to think straight. And it makes us give up our power to tough-talking authoritarians.

The Bush maladministration and Repugs in general well know this. It's their main tool for trying to get what they want to their enrichment and our detriment.

Have we learned anything from the revelations that the Bush administration lied us into the need for a war in Iraq, lied about the need for torture, lied about the reason for spying, loss of constitutional rights, and an overwhelmingly powerful executive branch?

Have we learned anything from the discovery that unnecessary war, torture and panic over sporadic terrorist attacks create more terrorism and reduce national security?

Or will our fear of the underwear bomber and other terrorist acts scare us into stupidity again, as it did so many people during the Bush years?

Sure, if we let them, and they are damn sure still working the fear tactic.

Did we learn anything during the Bush Era? Some of us did and too many didn't.

Continue the march.

Why Did the Bush Administration Send Hardcore Terrorists Back to Al-Qaida?

This ties in somewhat with Fixer's post below.

Evan Kohlmann at Counterterrorism Blog:

One of the most troubling aspects of the recent explosion of activity by Al-Qaida in Yemen (otherwise known as "Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula") is the role being played by Saudi nationals who are former detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. At least eleven former Saudi Gitmo prisoners who were sent back home by the Bush administration between 2003-2007 have promptly rejoined Al-Qaida in Yemen -- including individuals who made no secret of their intentions upon being released. [...]

That's correct: the U.S. military repeatedly warned the Bush administration in advance that almost half of the former Saudi Gitmo detainees who have rejoined Al-Qaida continued to represent active threats to the United States--and yet they were released anyway, evidently for political reasons. There are serious questions here that must be immediately addressed by those within the former Bush administration responsible for this inept decision-making process.

Fat chance, and 'inept' is far too kind a word for war criminal terrorist enablers.

FBI lying about Flight 253?

Go read this eyewitness account of what happened after Flight 253 landed.

Following up on a visit from FBI officials about an eyewitness account first described to MLive.com, Michigan attorney Kurt Haskell described the visit in comment sections across MLive on Wednesday.

Today is the second worst day of my life after 12-25-09. Today is the day that I realized that my own country is lying to me and all of my fellow Americans. Let me explain.

Do not miss this.

Comments here.

Quote of the Day

Greenwald:

It's so striking how often the agenda of America's Right and the desires of Al Qaeda Terrorists perfectly coincide ...

Fun fact ...

From Maru:

...

Bonus: supposedly the hospital he [Rush Lintball] is being treated at is the same one he accused of lying about Prez Obama's birth.

...

Dinosaur ...

Your landline probably won't make it through the next decade:

...

The (almost) one in five Americans relying exclusively on a plain old telephone line should prepare to kiss that wall jack goodbye as the major wireline telephone providers back away from that dying (and expensive business). However, AT&T in its filing doesn’t offer a way to bridge the gap for that 20 percent of Americans relying only on landlines, nor does it address what an all-IP future means for the 33 percent of Americans who have access to broadband but do not subscribe (although those broadband laggards might be paying for a digital voice product from a cable provider).

...

We kissed Ma Bell goodbye last month and now get TV, interwebs, and phone through the cable company. All that costs about as much as our AT&T bill did.

Thanks to Cookie Jill for the link.

2010 ...

Things are already looking up!

TheConservatives.com, the Washington Times Web project that was billed as an ambitious "multiplatform" venture to allow "the Joe the Plumbers of the world to speak up to major thinkers, like Newt Gingrich," has gone silent.

Brian Faughnan, editor of the site, tells us the Times has officially canceled the project.

...

Link thanks to Roger Ailes the Good.

We still ain't square ...

Nucks:

...

It might be 2010 but 2000 to 2009 needs to be seriously remembered as the years that this country got robbed, raped and sent the bill for the pleasure of having it done so many times the drapes are beyond cleaning.

...

Happy New Year

Thanks to bsl128.

It Is Hereby Resolved...

Mad Kane's guide to New Year's Resolutions:

What is it about December 31st that spurs fantasies of self-reform? Is it too much food and drink? Seasonal exuberance? Lunacy induced by crowds?

Every December, otherwise rational people make resolutions meant to transform them into organized, addiction-free souls with clean houses, healthy bodies, wholesome relationships, perfect children, and career paths soaring to the top -- the same vows they made last year and the year before that.

Can our resolutions endure past January 1st? Can we make it to year's end without ripping up our lists?

AGREEMENT entered into this ___________ (Date) by Husband and Wife (jointly called "Couple").

WHEREAS, New Year's Eve is coming and Couple feel compelled to make some vows:

NOW, THEREFORE, Couple make the following New Year's Resolution Agreement:

Go.

Happy New Year, Mad.

"Maybe the problem is that we haven't cleaned up after the Bush administration fast enough."

Worth a watch in case you missed it.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Quote of the Day

Montag:

...

Many would say it is not right to wish ill on anyone. That we should take a christian approach and forgive our enemies, but I am not a christian. I am hoping, despite the best efforts of the cardiac staff that his heart is screaming "FUCK YOU RUSH!" as it does a Palin on him and quits. One less enemy of the United States.

Indeed!

STFU ...

From the White House:

...

To put it simply: this President is not interested in bellicose rhetoric, he is focused on action. Seven years of bellicose rhetoric failed to reduce the threat from al Qaeda and succeeded in dividing this country. And it seems strangely off-key now, at a time when our country is under attack, for the architect of those policies to be attacking the President.

...

Shorter: "Dick Cheney, please go hunting with yourself."

Thanks to Mr. Aravosis for the link.

Is that a bomb in your pants...

...or are you just glad to see me?



I like this one too:



If ya don't catch him before he sets the thing off, never mind...

Thanks to YubaNet.

Headline of the Day

Revolutionary 'light emitting wallpaper' could start to replace light bulbs in 2012

I will assume there'll be a switch so you can turn it off...

U.S. Had Early Signals of a Terror Plot, Obama Says

Here's a 'must read' NYTimes piece on Skivviesbombergate:

HONOLULU — President Obama was told Tuesday about more missed signals and uncorrelated intelligence that should have prevented a would-be bomber from boarding a flight to the United States, leading the president to declare that there had been a “systemic failure” of the nation’s security apparatus.

One of the problems that allowed 9/11 to happen persists. The fuckers still aren't talking to one another or ignoring shit that matters as unimportant because it came from 'them, not us'.

Two officials said the government had intelligence from Yemen before Friday that leaders of a branch of Al Qaeda were talking about “a Nigerian” being prepared for a terrorist attack. While the attacker was not named, officials said it would have been evident had it been compared to information about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian charged with trying to blow up an American passenger jet on Christmas Day.

Compare notes? What a concept! Yeesh.

Please go read the rest.

War on labor? That's part of it...

Think Progress, links at site.

In the aftermath of the attempted Christmas airplane bombing, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) is unrepentant about his hold on President Obama’s nomination for the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the division of the Department of Homeland Security that handles airport security. Obama nominated Erroll Southers — a former FBI special agent, the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department assistant chief for homeland security and intelligence, and the associate director of the University of Southern California’s Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events — to run TSA in September. Southers’ nomination was approved by two Senate committees, but DeMint has placed a hold on Southers “in an effort to prevent TSA workers from joining a labor union“:

I never saw a picture of Chief Southers until yesterday, but can you spot another reason why Demint doesn't want this guy?



I think perhaps a smart, educated, experienced, competent black cop as head of the TSA does not fit Deminted's throwback view of the correct direction for our country to take. Cops are supposed to be white and protect us from them. They're also to be used to quell union industrial action and protect the money men from the great unwashed whom they exploit in the quest for profit. A black man must never be made equal to a white man, let alone be elevated above white men in any organization.

Best man for the job be damned. In the batcrap right, equality ("race mixing") = socialism and must be suppressed in favor of the old order of white supremacy. Of course he's not supposed to say that, but anti-unionism is Repug policy and will have to do.

Update:

More on Demint's hold at McClatchy.

Irony lives!

From iol.co.za, South Africa. Worth a look.

Mogadishu - A man tried to board a commercial airliner in Mogadishu last month carrying powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe that could have caused an explosion in a case bearing chilling similarities to the terrorist plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner.

So...airport screeners are doing a better job in Somalia than in Amsterdam? Since they caught the guy, it couldn't possibly be Obama's fault...probably why we didn't hear about it 'til now.