Psychopolitik 2.0

It takes a big man to admit he’s wrong — and Bush is not a big man.  So we end up with this:

In the next week there will be senators in Syria and House members in Cuba, countries where the United States has no official ambassador and with which, for political reasons, the Bush administration refuses to speak.

While technically fact-finding missions, the congressional trips come amidst criticism that the Bush administration is not doing enough to diplomatically engage countries whose relations with the United States are strained.

In the case of Syria, the cold shoulder from the White House comes despite the strong recommendations of Democrats and the Iraq Study Group that a direct dialogue with Damascus could be essential to stabilizing Iraq.

Typical right-winger response: “those damn Defeatocrats & their fraternizing with teh enemy!  Less talk, more war!”

Oh…what have we here?  Republicans are sidestepping the Petulant-Child-in-Chief too!

It’s not just Democrats flouting the Republican White House, which has official control of American foreign policy. The eight-member delegation to Cuba is made up of four Republicans and four Democrats. That group may meet with acting President Raul Castro before returning Sunday. Arlen Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania, is one of the four senators who either were just in or are going to Syria in the coming weeks. Specter delivered a speech on the Senate floor last week advocating dialogue between the United States and Syria, as well as with North Korea. (emphasis mine)

It makes sense to talk with Syria for one very important — and very obvious — reason: as regional neighbors to Iraq, they know much more about them than we ever could.  We don’t potentially deal with iraqis every day back home.  Besides that, if this becomes a regional clusterfuck then it’s better to have an idea where they’re coming from when they jump in than to be surprised later.

As for Cuba, it’s amazing how they’re still being treated as if the Reds are going to overrun us at the drop of a hat.  I hope that the dialog there is a crack in the foundation of that far-outdated belief, & we’re on the road to ending that trade embargo.  If it takes Fidel sliding towards a dirt nap to get to that, then so be it.

Of course, this situation just wouldn’t feel right without some comic relief.  Take it away, Tony:

“We have discouraged members of Congress from doing this,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said Thursday.  “We spoke with [Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida who went on a fact-finding mission to Syria this week] beforehand. He went. We think it’s inappropriate. … The point is that even lending a further specter of legitimacy to that government undermines the cause of democracy in the region.”

Y’know what REALLY undermines the cause of democracy over there?  The sight of the iraqi interpretation of it as a circular firing squad.   Besides, considering how the borders in the middle east were created, one could argue that there is no “legitimacy” to be had in the entire region*.

(* - first one to call me anti-semetic for not excluding Israel from this needs a history lesson.  And a proctologist to remove the stick from their ass.) 

Blahblahgovernmentprstuntshowofforceblah:

More than 1,200 people were arrested in meatpacking plants in six states during raids that federal officials said amounted to the largest-ever workplace crackdown on illegal immigration.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday the investigation uncovered a “disturbing front” in the war against illegal immigration, in which illegal immigrants are using the identities of U.S. citizens to obtain jobs.

“Violations of our immigration laws and privacy rights often go hand in hand,” he said. “Enforcement actions like this one protect the privacy rights of innocent Americans while striking a blow against illegal immigration.”

The raids at Swift & Co. plants across the country resulted in 1,282 arrests, including 1,217 on immigration charges and 65 on criminal charges such as identity theft. Chertoff said the investigation is continuing into several groups that may have sold identity documents to illegal immigrants.

The arrested workers were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, Laos, Sudan, Ethiopia and other countries.

Gee, wonder what the company thought of that?

Immigration officials last month informed Swift that it would remove unauthorized workers on Dec. 4, but Swift asked a federal judge to prevent agents from conducting the raid, arguing it would cause “substantial and irreparable injury” to its business.

The company estimated a raid would remove up to 40 percent of its 13,000 workers. Greeley-based Swift describes itself as the world’s second-largest meat processor with sales of about $9 billion. […]

No charges were filed against Swift.  In a written statement, President and CEO Sam Rovit said the company has never knowingly hired illegal workers and does not condone the practice. (emphasis mine)

Then how the hell did you end up suspecting such a large percentage of your workforce was illegals?  Oh yeah, I know, because in your mind hiring illegal immigrants is the next best thing to having slaves.

Some “warning“…:

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has warned Vice President Dick Cheney that Saudi Arabia would back the Sunnis if the United States pulls out of Iraq, according to a senior American official.

The official said the king “read the riot act” to the vice president when the two met last month in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

The New York Times first reported the conversation Wednesday, saying Saudi support would include financial backing for minority Sunnis in the event of a civil war between them and Iraq’s Shiite majority.

Honestly, who expected them to NOT get involved?  The US goes in & somehow makes the region worse than usual, it’s going to pull in some neighbors.  That proposal by the Iraq Study Group to get Iran involved is gonna prove unnecessary if this does happen, because they’ll jump in anyway — though obviously not for the goal that they intended.
Eh, other 80’s things are making a comeback, no surprise that proxy war might join ‘em.

The more I hear about the APD narcs vs elderly woman debacle, the more it reinforces my suspicion of cops.  Here’s where the story stands now:

A flagrant repeat offender, to bargain for leniency, told the police they could get a kilo of cocaine from a certain address.  The cops went to that address — in plainclothes, smashing their way in, in a bad neighborhood, at night.  An 88-year old woman, the only resident there, thought she was being robbed & attempted to defend herself with a handgun; the cops killed her.  After the fact, they got a longtime informant to lie for them & claim they bought drugs at that address. Then, when the story was revealed to be false, the longtime informant, while waiting to be picked up by federal agents, gets a visit by the ATL undercovers that had him make it up in the first place.  The feds talk to him on cellphone & basically tell the informant “RUN!!”.  As he’s escaping, he calls 911 & says he’s got dirty cops chasing him.

This is clearly WELL beyond incompetance, even beyond “well they shouldn’t really do that” questions of conduct.  This is full-blown throw these cops in a PMITA prison shit.

Ugh…:

In a case that could shape firearms laws nationwide, attorneys for the District of Columbia argued Thursday that the Second Amendment right to bear arms applies only to militias, not individuals.

The city defended as constitutional its long-standing ban on handguns, a law that some gun opponents have advocated elsewhere. Civil liberties groups and pro-gun organizations say the ban in unconstitutional.

At issue in the case before a federal appeals court is whether the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms” applies to all people or only to “a well regulated militia.” The Bush administration has endorsed individual gun-ownership rights but the Supreme Court has never settled the issue.

If the dispute makes it to the high court, it would be the first case in nearly 70 years to address the amendment’s scope. The court disappointed gun owner groups in 2003 when it refused to take up a challenge to California’s ban on assault weapons. (emphasis mine)

1) At the time the 2nd Amendment was written, the term “well regulated” was a synonym of “well prepared”, NOT the current interpretation by statists as “somehow controlled by government”.

2) The militia was defined already back in 1792 as consisting of all able-bodied (free) men between the ages of 17 & 45 that had a firearm.  This has since been expanded, not reduced.

3) For good measure, look at the text of the 2nd Amendment again:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

The sentence is clearly in the form of “Since X, then Y”.  For example: “A tortilla being necessary to make a burrito, it is dumb to offer to make someone a burrito if you don’t have tortillas or the skill & ingredients to make one”.  You can transpose the statements and the meaning would not change.  Observe: “It is dumb to offer to make someone a burrito if you don’t have tortillas or the skill & ingredients to make one, a tortilla being necessary to make a burrito”.

This attempt at disarming people yet again is so pathetic it doesn’t even warrant a snarky “nice try”.  Away with ye!

Consider the following a reminder that market actions can look vastly different depending on involvement & ones own mindset:

Sony sold only 197,000 units of its PlayStation3 games console in the US last month, well below sales of Nintendo’s rival Wii, because of supply problems.

It had aimed to put 400,000 PS3s into the biggest market for video games for the release of its next-generation machine in November. But the figures from researcher NPD Group show it achieved less than 200,000. In contrast, Nintendo’s rival Wii console outsold the PS3 by more than two-to-one, selling 476,000 units in November.

The PS3 went on sale on November 17 and the Wii on November 19. Both products quickly sold out and have been reaching prices well in excess of their respective $599 and $250 price tags on websites such as eBay.

This has been bad news for video game publishers, who have seen “attach rates” on average of only one game being sold along with every PS3 console and two for the Wii, rather than the three or four that would normally be expected. (emphasis mine)

From a pure economic standpoint, this makes perfect sense: some people want them more than others & are willing to pay more for it, plain and simple. My personal, non-economic view of it is that the onespaying the regular price are impatient & the ones buying these consoles on eBay for upwards of a G are, to put it scientifically, fucking insane. Early adopters of new technology are who these companies make the majority of their money off of, past the saturation point the profit potential sinks. Besides, you don’t want to rush to the store only to find out down the line you got stuck with the next BetaMax, do you? As for the ones getting them on auctions, I find it especially odd in the case of the PS3, since many people (including myself) thought the $600 retail was too much.

Just had a thought: I’ve got a way that some gaming company in the future could potentially take advantage of this willingness to pay anything for a hot game system. Suppose instead of selling the systems the traditional way, they had it so the initial sales for a certain time period would be all in the form of auctions, spread out into different areas? Then, after that period was up or sales reached a certain point, they then put the rest of the consoles in the stores the regular way at a fraction of the average final sale price. They could ensure a profit on initial sales by targetting exactly the people that would pay anything for it, without having to have consoles gather dust on the shelves waiting for the rest of us to buy it, & with that they could afford to deliberately do traditional sales at a loss in comparison, giving late-adopters a huge bargain.  It’d be a more direct version of what’s happening now.

Found this interesting:

Half of young people using cannabis suffer side effects such as paranoia and blackouts, a UK survey suggests.  More than 80% of the 727 young people in their teens and early 20s polled by YoungMinds had tried the drug - the vast majority before they were 18.  The charity is calling for urgent research on the effects of cannabis on the developing teenage brain […]

Barbara Herts, YoungMinds chief executive, said […] studies show young people who use cannabis regularly or heavily are at least twice as likely to develop a psychotic mental disorder by young adulthood than those who do not smoke.

So they say that virtually all of the research has been done on adults.  Only thing to really respond to that with is “well no shit!” and move on.
Now, the claim about marijuana use & mental problems here assumes causation where there is actually a gray area.  Think about it for a moment: while there are people who use marijuana (among other things) for purely recreational purposes, there is a significant segment of drug use that could be defined as crude “self-medication” for psychological reasons.  They’re likely to have a revealed mental disorder, but aside form the “smoke weed, go nuts” assumption it could also mean that the ones with precursors to such disorders are more inclined to use it, or that some other condition they aren’t controlling for is involved — possibly even mere genetics.  I’m no expert, but logic alone suggests this isn’t as cut & dried as it looks.

BTW: this is not to say I am ADVOCATING minors use marijuana in the slightest, do not read it as that.  I just hope to remind people to be open minded.

This is a statement that will shock you unless you know what it refers to:

“I agree 100% with Dale Franks“

By now you’ve heard of the issue w/ Dennis Prager — a 3rd tier nutjob right-wing talking head — whining because the first muslim elected to congress wants to swear-in pose for his ceremonial photo-op with his hand on the Koran instead of the Bible.  In response, CAIR wants Prager’s head chopped off.

Hehe, I’m kidding.  No, they want him removed from a Holocaust memorial council:

An Islamic civil rights group wants a columnist removed from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council for criticizing Rep.-elect Keith Ellison’s decision to use the Koran during the Minnesota Democrat’s ceremonial swearing-in next month.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said yesterday that comments by Dennis Prager, a columnist and conservative talk radio host, displayed an intolerance toward Islam that makes him inappropriate to serve on the council, which oversees the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

That’s an understandable criticism.  It’s kinda hypocritical to have on a board whose purpose is to remind people of the end result of intolerance someone who openly endorses it.  To be honest, I hadn’t heard of this group before,  who the hell put him on the council in the first place?

President Bush appointed Prager in August to fill the remainder of a five-year term, which expires in January 2011.   (emphasis mine)

…oh.

Well that takes having Prager on it from mere hypocrisy to government endorsement of bigotry.  Yank him.

BTW: the “america-hating religious extremists” I refer to with the title?  They’re people like the type that respond to 100% correct criticism of an openly prejudiced whacko being on a government created & appointed council with “muslims oppose freedom of speech!”:

I, too, have been verbally attacked for saying Islam is a threat to national security. I have been called a “bigot”, a “Christian fascist”, and a “hate monger.” I was also told that “ America must learn to live in peace with Islam,” and that I had no right to speak such views in public. Last I knew, the First Amendment guaranteed our freedom of speech.

Last I knew, Article Six Clause Three explicitly banned religious tests for any public office…

Here’s a thought: since they insist upon having some ceremonial bit prior to the actual oath, why not have them do it on a copy of the Constitution?

Stage one: For still-unbelievable strategic reasons, form an alliance with a looney dictator who openly oppresses the majority of his own population, up to and including helping him use chemical weapons.

Stage two: Imply to said dictator that you would be cool with him invading a nearby tiny petro-kingdom — which exists solely because of an arbitrary border drawn by outgoing imperialists — then turn around and fight him when the result is higher oil prices.

Stage three: Have the UN impose sanctions on the country of the now ex-friend dictator, justifying them by claiming that starving people through a 3rd party will get them to revolt against their government.

Stage four: Ignore all proof that weapons inspections are working for the most part, and constantly threaten to invade. Wait a few years.

Stage five: Upon suffering terrorist attacks that were carried out by non-state religious fundamentalists, implicitly blame said attacks on a relatively secular Stalinist regime — conveniently the one our ex-friend dictator runs. Clamor for war, using as justification possible WMDs (a charge inspections show to be a crock) & “he’s starving his people!” (despite that not being an acceptable reason for war, and also being partially our fault — see stage three).

Stage six: Invade & occupy country full of rightfully pissed-off people w/ 1/4th of the troops estimated necessary for such a task. Deliberately confuse democracy (read: majority-rule) w/ liberalism (read: 51% of the population cannot piss in the morning coffee of the other 49% despite majority — and doesn’t want to), proclaiming everything A-OK once a vote is conducted despite the majority wanting revenge rather than tolerance, the old ruling minority wanting their power back, & both wanting us to GTFO ASAP — and willing to use violence to express that sentiment.
Stage seven: Conduct a half-assed effort at promoting reconciliation among the groups, when getting out of their way would make more sense.

Stage eight: Consider abandoning reconciliation effort, but instead of preparing to withdraw, hatch up plan to form an open alliance with the new leadership (+ a 3rd group that probably would rather break away, for token purposes) while they….openly oppress and murder part of their own population. Yay!
Props…