Open Thread

by hilzoy

William Arkin, the Washington Post's normally sober military/security blogger, has written a Rumsfeld Christmas song:

"Snowflakes roasting on an open fire,
Rummy's in his final throes,
Useless memos being fed to the pyre,
Hosannas sung by GI Joes.

Everybody knows the voters said you have to go,
Iraq has got to be made right,
Have a blast making fabulous dough,
I'm sure the Boards will love your spite.

We know that Gate's on his way,
He's got the exit strategy for which we've prayed.
All those in uniform will hardly cry,
They long ago saw past the 'oh goodness my.'

And so I'm firing this joyful shot,
At Rummy and his lousy crew,
We'll still uncover many crimes, many ways,
But the world is safer 'cause you're through.

We know that Gate's is on his way,
He's going to find the place in Rummy disarray,
The troops may be gung-ho but they are fried,
Let's hope and pray the Green Zone's days are equally nigh.

And so I offer up this borrowed phrase,
The military's black and blue,
You point your finger everywhere, every way,
The blame however falls on you."

Wow.

Also, the Poor Man has found a truly awesome kitten page. I won't copy the one The Editors posted, which is wonderful. Instead:

Discuss.

Comments

[rilkefan]

Got the following awfulness in the mail from the ACLU - thought about sending my card back for a minute.

An Overdue Visit

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the nation
Friends of Freedom knew it was a special occasion.
Lady Liberty stood taller just off the shore
Her torch shining brighter than a few weeks before

But it wasn't the flame turning her cheeks all rosy
It was thoughts of Snowe, Feingold and Nancy Pelosi
And leaders from every side of the aisle
Who would soon bring the Bill of Rights back into style.

The Amendments had all hurried out of their beds -
Which was no easy task, they were nearly in shreds -
And they rushed to the window on papery feet
As a jolly old man flew right over their street.

"Could it be!?" they inquired as the roof shook and trembled
And they crept toward the mantle, peaceably assembled,
Just as someone emerged from the chimney with flair
In a shiny red suit, with a shock of white hair [...]

It stumbles on and on. Think I'll save it on the off-chance I ever get to teach a poetry class.

[Nell]

What if the ACLU sent you a kitten picture?

I'm in ur courts.

Bein a ninja.

[CaseyL]

Wonderful kittipix. Too many to pick "a" favorite. The one that made me laugh loudest, longest, was the OMG. TAKE THE PICTURE SO I CAN KILL THIS WOMAN.

[rilkefan]

Love the kittens, hate the machete-crafted metric abomination.

[DaveC]

From what I hear the Brown's Chicken Massacre murderers have a good chance of getting off scott-free because the computer that had the results of the DNA analysis was junked.

And the guy who killed the morning manager at the Lindenhurst Burger King was obviously guilty of murdering an entire family but was freed because of problems with police procedures.

So who is going to get blamed for this? The cops, not the perpetrators. Two years on, this kind of blame-shifting is still making life hell for somebody in my extended family. I find it strange that anybody believes that Rumsfeld or our men and women in the military are primarily responsible for car bombings in Iraq, but your mileage apparently varies.

[Katherine]

This isn't so bad:

""So, on Christian," he cried, "Muslim, Hindu, and Jew!
"On Quaker! On Shaker! And Atheist too!
"On Buddhist! On Taoist! And to show we're not chickens
"We'll file a few lawsuits defending the Wiccans!"

agreed on the rest. Meter is more important than rhyme (and harder).

The kittens are AWESOME.

[Jesurgislac]

I worship the kittens.

Rumsfeld as scapegoat, and Gates as savior?

Bush is still in the White House. Still pretending to be a ninja.

[CharleyCarp]

DaveC, I'll bite: who thinks it's the fault of the perps that the police didn't follow proper procedures? Were the procedures a mystery?

I can't see why you can't see the the invasion created the chaos in Iraq. While the prior regime was brutal and awful, its brutality and awfulness wasn't randomly distributed: they didn't just grab random people off the street and torture them to show that they could. Instead, efforts were concentrated on regime opponents. OK, if you were an opponents of the regime, you'd've had to live in fear. But a random person shopping, keeping your head down? Nothing to worry about. Or a http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/15/AR2006121501744.html>woman going to university to study engineering or something. But now, because of the removal of the state oppression that kept extreme elements under the surface, ordinary people are at real risk. Blame is not binary: that Bush and the neocons are to blame does not excuse the insurgent theorists who've decided that blowing up random Shiites in the marketplace is a good strategy. (Binary is the wrong word -- indivisible would be better).

[Phil]

hilzoy, you'll like this: The company for which I work was acquired earlier this year by Berkshire Hathaway. Last week, we had our annual sales meeting, and remarkably Warren Buffett came and spoke to us and took questions for about 90 minutes.

He was asked a lot about his political opinions and social views. And his answers, you'll be pleased to hear, aligned nearly perfectly with Rawls's positions, particularly the "veil of ignorance." And when asked what he would change if he ran the country, the first thing he could think of was, "Raise taxes on people like me, and re-instate the estate tax."

So, the second-richest guy on the planet -- who is a genuine charmer, and full of life and humor, btw -- is clearly a liberal. :)

[CharleyCarp]

I realize, DaveC, that you said 'primarily' to blame. Well, among people who work for me (and are answerable to), Bush and Rumsfeld are primarily to blame.

Fell better now?

[hilzoy]

DaveC: "From what I hear the Brown's Chicken Massacre murderers have a good chance of getting off scott-free because the computer that had the results of the DNA analysis was junked.

And the guy who killed the morning manager at the Lindenhurst Burger King was obviously guilty of murdering an entire family but was freed because of problems with police procedures."

Who is responsible? The perpetrators are responsible for the killings, in both cases. I agree with CharleyCarp that the police are responsible, in the second case, for their going free. (I mean, the perps tried to go free through their own devices -- trying not to get caught -- but apparently failed.)

The reason we have rules about police procedures and evidence is simple. If we said that evidence could be introduced in court no matter how it was collected, then the police would have no incentive to respect the procedures that have been put in place to protect all of us. They could (for instance) forget about those pesky warrant requirements, go around searching whomever they felt like searching, and when they found some evidence of a crime they could introduce it in court, and all they'd have to say is "oops! my bad!" By preventing them from introducing such evidence in court, all of us are protected from unreasonable searches.

Note three things: first, of course it's possible that the actual procedures agreed on are stupid. That's a different question from whether evidence obtained in ways that disregard the procedures (whatever they are) should be admissible in court. Second, the reason the courts have introduced specific formulas for cops to follow, like the Miranda warnings, is precisely to make their lives easier, by giving them a formula that is guaranteed not to run into problems, rather than asking the cops to figure out on their own what's OK and what's not every time.

Third, this has nothing to do with moral responsibility for the killings. Of course the perps are responsible for that. It just has to do with the best rules of evidence for courts.

The first case is easier. Who's responsible for the killings? The perps. Who's responsible for their going free? Again: not the perps: they tried and their efforts failed. It's the idiot who threw out the computer.

[Nell]

We know that Gates's on his way,
He's got the exit strategy for which we've prayed.

If only.

[Ugh]

A friend of mine who was a cop before attending law school (and who, interestingly enough, decided he liked being a cop much better than a lawyer and went back to it after a few years) gave us his take on things like the Miranda warning and other procedures, which was that they were pretty easy to comply with and there was no reason to not do so.

As hilzoy notes, these things are there to protect the rights of the accused, who may or may not be guilty, the fact that a guilty person goes free every now and then is the price we pay for our rights. If you don't want your rights DaveC, you're free to give them up, but don't give ours away too.

[cleek]

i went through that kitten page 3x yesterday and was literally crying from laughing so hard.

GOING TO THE MOON. BRB.

on a slightly different topic, the Poorman also has a link to Britney's crotch shots. WTF was that girl thinking ???

[John Thullen]

Phil:

I own Berkshire Hathaway stock. Every time I hear Buffet say that taxes should be raised, including capital gains taxes I would hope, I buy more.

Incentives.

Open thread. Since I bad mouth the guy here quite often, I thought I would point out that Erick at Red State reported the other day that he has come through a very bad medical scare with his wife first being told she might have cancer and now finding out that it may well be something else, not as serious.

I wish him and his wife and family well.

[Ugh]

John Thullen - I saw that too, and also wish him and his wife and family well.

I would do it over there, but, well, a previous Blamming™ got in the way.

[rilkefan]

"It's the idiot who threw out the computer."

No, it's the idiotic admin who didn't put a stable backup system into place.

[xanax]

but rilkefan, you gotta admit, for "campy" it's hard to beat
the amendments rushing to the window "on papery feet."

[Amanda]

As it's an open thread: any front page post yet on Wyden's Healthy Americans Act? A Google News search turns up one result, an offhand mention at that, but Ezra Klein has more. Probably the most viable plan yet, and certainly interesting. I'd be interested to see what the commentariat here would have to say about it.

[rilkefan]

xanax, re the imagery I don't grumble -
but rather, how the verse's feet all stumble.

[Model 62]

"We can't stop here. This is bat country."

[hilzoy]

"Drillcat will kill ur family"

[rilkefan]

Someone explain "bat country" to me?

[Pascal's bookie]

I am guessing that all this "I am in ur x, doing y to ur z" commenting is based on online gaming?
Best one I've seen was in comments at either 'Sadly, no' or the Poor Man and was about teh war on Christmas and went something like
"1m n UR manger, k1llin a11 ur Jaybuz"

[matttbastard]

Someone explain "bat country" to me?

Quote from 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'.

[Ugh]

"1m n UR manger, k1llin a11 ur Jaybuz"

That's awesome.

[Phil]

For the origin of the phrase, see "im in ur base killin ur d00dz"

[matttbastard]

Rockin' Katz make Sunday morning less painful (curse you, Johnny Walker!)

[dutchmarbel]

The reason we have rules about police procedures and evidence is simple. If we said that evidence could be introduced in court no matter how it was collected, then the police would have no incentive to respect the procedures that have been put in place to protect all of us.

Sad, reading this, just after I read this via Gary.

[farmgirl]

"invisible bicycles meet invisible ladder"

that one put me over the edge from laughter to tears.

[trilobite]

But are these cats good for the Jews?

[Bernard Yomtov]

From what I hear the Brown's Chicken Massacre murderers have a good chance of getting off scott-free because the computer that had the results of the DNA analysis was junked.

I don't really know what this is about, but did they throw away the evidence too? Was there only enough material to run the tests once?

[derrin ansell]

okay. wait sorry i cant stop lafin lol those r funny lol