perfidy

Dave Kilcullen is one of the top commanders in Iraq. He's written a short piece describing current operations. It rings so much truer than the punditry we are almost forced to endure (but then we turn the TV off). I hope he's right -- it sounds like he knows what he's doing.

Presented without comment, really good (or really bad) advice to America's youth.

[wik] Video, and the domain it was hosted on, are long dead. C'est la Vie.

One gauge of a person's moral fiber is how they treat animals.

Mitt Romney, for example, supports "extreme measures" for interrogators, and apparently thinks it's fine to strap the family dog to the roof of the car and drive from Massachusetts to Ohio. The shit rolling down the back windshield? That's doggy laughter.

Just sayin'.

My boy will say to me, one day in the not to distant future, "Daddy, what is your opinion of George Walker Bush's presidency and the legacy he left for the nation and the Republican party?" And I'll pick him up, dandle him on my knee (for he'll be preternaturally articulate and world-aware, like some real life version of Dawson's Creek), and say to him, "Son, it's like Tim Dickinson wrote in Rolling Stone: He was 'not much of a Republican at all – more like a retarded Christian AA version of Woodrow Wilson. He spent like crazy and he got America involved in these crazy 'let’s export the wonderfulness of us' adventures."

And then we'll both toast the good old days when the worst you could say about our President was that from time to time he mistook vaginas for humidors and had a tenuous relationship with the word "is."

Jericho Hill, one of the list mods at Get Rich Slowly forums went to the happy hour for PF bloggers I hosted last week. I extended an invitation when I saw he was from DC. My bad. He is a prime Casey Serin Hater, so he brought me up to date on Mr. Serin’s sad travails.

And all I could do is pray that God would not kill me for my schadenfreude.

JH then told me to visit caseypedia.com, the wiki for the Casey Haters. I fear I am one and will have to join this elite club of people who pay their bills on time and have integrity. How many of the ministers and their fine minions are secret Casey Haters as well?

It's people like Mr. Serin who ought to be jailed for fraud. Having worked a bankruptcy case for a fraudulent flipper in Baltimore, it disgusts me that people who get liar loans and then end up in foreclosure on multiple properties are going to bring the economy down with their stupdity. It's the greedy mortgage brokers and banks who need to tighten credit a little and exercise a little fiscal responsibility and stop idiots like Mr. Serin from even getting into the position of being irresponsible. I'd love to let him hang himself, but apparently he's quasi-homeless in Australia. Most likely he'll get a free trip back courtesy of extradition papers. (OMG, I hope so. That would be frickin' awesome! Eek. I am sure Mr. Serin would use those exact words to describe the experience of being violated in federal prison. It seems to be one of his favorite phrases.)

N.B. this is a modified cross post of something on Mapgirl's Fiscal Challenge.

From the Ministry of Minor Perfidy Social Calendar: Aging lefties sometimes get married. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Buckethead for their attendance, and the support of so many other family and friends. The curious might want to view a few photographs from the wedding; I've managed to get a few up there.
http://www.terriandross.com/

Do like beer?
Do you like to raise money for charity?
Do you like to drink beer to raise money for charity?

If you answered yes to any of those questions and live in Norfolk, VA, please go to the 2007 Summer Ghent Bar Tour! They raise money for the Make a Wish Foundation. Last winter's tour raised over $14,000.00, blowing their goal of $8K out of the water.

And don't click on the Ashtin and Braden link. You'll see two totally adorable little tykes who are really sick. Once you see them, of course you'll donate money!

My personal college experience with larval Republicans was sub-optimal at best. I was constantly called upon to explain the tactless mouth breathing of my small school's single fanatic Republican Kool-Aid drinker. Having to repeatedly agree with this idiot was painful - "Well, he's right, it's just that he said it in the worst conceivable way." At least these young Republicans have something of a sense of humor. The Alexandria, Va YR's are planning the first annual Dick Cheney Paintball Tourney, "named in honor of our Vice President and second amendment enthusiast Dick Cheney." So, if you're not busy, go shoot with, or shoot at, some young conservatives.

I completely forgot to mention, but the other day Ministry Crony and future Hugo winner EDog has a published novel now available for sale. The story in question is The Milkman, which Ian was kind enough to let me read a while back. It is fun, weird and strangely comforting. It's gonzo science fiction in an era that doesn't look overly kindly at gonzo, or science fiction. It tries to answer one of the burning questions of our time: "What’s the deal with aliens and anal probes?" And succeeds in finding an answer. Swordfights, bikers, spaceships and some embarrassing bodily functions. What more could you ask for?

Buy the damn book already, you won't regret it. You can get your greasy mits on a copy here (author's preference) or here or here.

Johno sent me another vid, which I must share. Watch the whole thing:

[wik] And... it's gone, disappeared sometime in the last nearly two decades.

I guess today is video day at the Ministry. I first saw Bjørn Berge a few years back at the Iota in Arlington (a fantastic music joint if you're ever in the DC area) and was stunned by his guitar mojo. A Norwegian blues man? Who'd a thunk. But here's an video I just stumbled across, from his new album. Forgive the annoying Frenchiness at the beginning.

[wik] Another cool thing that I forgot to mention is that he's covering a Morphine tune off their Cure for Pain album. Morphine rocks, and his take on it is cool in its own way and still somehow true to the original. Here's the Morphine vid:

Microsoft's innovative (if, by innovative, you mean taking ideas that have been kicking around for twenty years and putting them in an overpriced and stunningly unwieldy form factor and calling it "revolutionary") Surface computer was debuted at the D conference a little while ago.

Here's a new take on it.

Several of our Ministers have, on occasion, used this forum to express a rabid, unthinking and vicious hatred of the traditional and sacred art of gerrymandering congressional districts. Now, if they only knew how difficult it is to balance out all those competing interests, they'd make less fun of all the funny shapes. But wait! Now they can know how difficult it is, by playing the magical interweb gerrymandering game! How fun is that? Actually, more fun than you'd think, and rather tricky until you get to the sucker bit at the end where they try to foist redistricting reform on you. That part's easy.

I found this over at the Llamabutchers, after I did my Harry Reid post over at Murdoc's. This is makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Helpful advice for surviving when the zombies come, all in a convenient wearable package:

Get yours today here.

(With a serious nod to the actual creators of the "Quotes entirely relevant..." genre, Long or Short Capital):

"There are some players that have psychologists," Cabrera said. "I smoke."

In the comments of the Pseudo-Linkzookery post, the conversation turned to wargaming - which was a bit of a surprise since if a thread drifts off topic here at Perfidy, the destination is usually zombies. One of the many games mentioned was Axis and Allies, one of my personal favorites, and a game I have not had the opportunity to play (due entirely to Mrs. Buckethead's bullheaded unwillingness to devote several hours to a boardgame.) It turns out that the Maximum Leader is a fan of the game as well, and so I propose that we set aside Bastille day as the first annual Perfidy Axis and Allies day. It seems particularly appropriate given that the French had no part in WWII, and will also have no part in the game.

Anyone who is local to the metro DC area who might be interested in playing a round of A&A, let me know.

Just seen in the Perfidious Advertising section, left:

Beautiful Russian Brides seeking men for marriage and dating. Find your true love now.

Luckily, we're not planning to refurnish the Ministry Bunker and Castratorium from the proceeds of advertising. And, while I hope it goes without saying, we as a group express no opinion on whether any reader will find their true love, from Russia or anywhere else.

Subject? Supreme Court rulings. Found in today's news, a story about the several decisions just handed down by our benign judicial overlords. The first two cases on which they ruled are interesting, but not part of the current exercise.

The case in question, Brendlin v. California, is covered in a Washington Post story entitled "Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Car Passengers". The heart of the case?

The court decided that when police stop a vehicle, passengers are "seized" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment and -- like drivers -- can dispute the legality of a search.

The ruling overturned a California Supreme Court decision in the case of Bruce Edward Brendlin, who was arrested on parole violation and drug charges after a November 2001 traffic stop in Yuba City, Calif. Brendlin, who subsequently was sentenced to four years in prison, appealed his conviction on the grounds that the drug evidence should have been suppressed because the traffic stop amounted to "an unlawful seizure of his person," according to today's ruling.

Although the state acknowledged that police "had no adequate justification" to stop the car, in which Brendlin was a passenger in the front seat, it argued that he was not "seized" and thus could not challenge the government's action under the Fourth Amendment's search and seizure protections. Government lawyers also argued that Brendlin could not claim that the evidence against him was tainted by an unconstitutional stop, according to the ruling.

California, in this case, was clearly and deeply wrong, and it's good, if unsurprising, to find the Supremes coming down unanimously in Brendlin's favor.

So, what's wrong with the story, you might ask? Well, not so much the story as the storyline - The WaPo story didn't cover this angle, but in the Wall Street Journal version of the story (subscription), I found this nugget:

The American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP backed Mr. Brendlin, arguing that a ruling in the state's favor would encourage police to conduct arbitrary traffic stops to target passengers, especially minorities, who lack the same rights as drivers.

Left unspoken is the irrelevant fact of Mr Brendlin's minority status, but I'll assume he's black. He could have been chartreuse without having any impact at all on this case, for all it would have mattered.

So Brendlin got the precisely correct result from the Court, for what I think hope are the right reasons, including the prima facie absurdity of California's position on the case. But the underlying theme, when the NAACP's and ACLU's involvement, their raison d'etre in this case, seems to indicate that absent some racial grievance, the alternative result would have occurred.

I have zero concern about the involvement of those two august organizations in providing Brendlin the legal and financial support in his battle, and good for them. Couching this as an issue that only or primarily resonates for minorities? That, I think, is a problem

Here's an interesting thing: a map of the United States with the names of the states replaced with the names of countries that have equivalent GNP's. It seems that my home state of Ohio is, economically, a brother to Australia. Cool. Take a look. Thanks to Rocket Jones for the link.

C'mon....I couldn't let this pass without saying something.

Actually, I think the pic they used for the story is right before the scene when the blades pop out and the thing flies straight into his eyes:

Apparently Israeli nuclear tests shattered the Phantom Zone carnival-mirror prison these guys inhabited.

If there is an Islamic analogue to Superman (II), he needs to get his caped ass to Gaza and get it done. 
 

Here's some interesting things:

Yesterday, the Victims of Communism Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC, in memory of the hundred million and more victims of global communism. Thanks to the Daily Brief for the heads-up, I'll have to check that out.

Also, the Brits are moving ahead on their new nuclear sub - the Astute, first in a new class of subs for the Royal Navy. Soon to launch, and only five years late and 900 million pounds overbudget. But look at this:

That wheely thing at the bottom would be great for the Iowa-class Main Battle Tank, no?

My current preferred candidate for President is the Fred Thompson, who is apparently pissing off all the other candidates by out-polling them without even having a declared candidacy. And, they're gunnin' for 'im.

A physicist is soliciting funds from you, yes, you, to conduct research into quantum retrocausality. That means, John Cramer of the University of Washington Physics Department wants to see if "signaling, or communication, in reverse time" is possible. I read both his sf novels, I think I might send him maybe a buck-two-fifty.

Tony Blair has turned the UK into a panopticon surveillance society. Let us hope we can duck that one here, but I think it's largely inevitable.

And finally, it is my birthday. Please email me for details on where you can send your Apple gift cards so that I can get my iPhone.

Joe Boyd: The main inspiration was losing my job running Hannibal Records. I mean, I always thought I might write a book one day. I've always enjoyed writing and when I found myself out of a job, I thought, this is the time. Hannibal had become part of Rykodisc in 1991, and Rykodisc in 98 became part of Palm Pictures, the Chris Blackwell company. And that never really worked very well. There was a lot of downsizing, and all the people who got downsized were my people and the people who didn't really understand or sympathize with the music I was doing were the people who were kept. It got pretty impossible to look an artist in the eye and say, "I'm going to do a good job for you." I made demands to change it, and they said, "No. You're obviously not very happy, so why don't you go away?" That was 2001.

Yep, that's pretty much how that went down. I was there. And now I don't have to write that chapter of my autobiography.

The whole interview, by the way, with former Hannibal Records label honcho Joe Boyd, is pretty great. He's been around everywhere, knew everybody, did everything and then some and more than that too, and has a million great stories to tell.

My latest post over at Murdoc Online

As I expected, in the comments for my last post someone recommended that the battleships be brought back from retirement. We all love the battleships. Armored to the point of (near) invulnerability, graceful, powerful, and loaded with 16” guns. A battleship broadside delivers a mind numbing amount of shells on target. We dig that. It’s a spectacle. And of course, naval support of Marine landings is an important role. But how useful is it?

Step back a bit. There is a reason that battleships were relegated to a subsidiary role. And that reason is air power. The primary consideration is not that the airplane can deliver more firepower more accurately, because until very recently the accuracy bit was sorely lacking, and there is no way that a teeny, tiny airplane – or even many teeny, tiny airplanes – can deliver the weight of fire that a battleship can. I imagine that a single gun from a battleship weighs as much as a plane.

The reason that the carriers and their air wings achieved primacy in battle is the range and speed of the aircraft. Airplanes are faster than boats. Now, much faster. That is what allows a carrier to control a bubble hundreds of miles in diameter, while a battleship is limited to, essentially, line of sight.

Here Over at MO, the commenting-American community is often attacking the esteemed air arms of our military for their addiction to air power as a means of conducting warfare. I have seen many complaints that the battleship – and artillery for the Army – are slighted in favor of highly expensive fragile airplanes that deliver itsy little bombs. And it is true that the more, uh, “focused” among air power advocates seem to believe that air power is the cure for all ills.

Yet, while we (and especially Dfens and James) might legitimately and with the certain conviction that we are in the right argue that the way that the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and even the Post Office procure, design, screw up and eventually buy combat aircraft that are tragically expensive and often not really suited to the roles that they need to fill; the fact remains that an aircraft will always be more flexible, faster, and cover a greater range than any battleship or Crusader self-propelled gun.

The flexibility of air power is a gift from the almighty – load the bombs or missiles you need, and any target within a thousand miles is doomed in a space of hours, or less. Doesn’t matter if it’s a building, a bunker, a bridge, a boat or a tank column. Artillery, no matter how puissant (talking guns here, not rockets) is not hitting beyond a couple dozen miles, and neither is a battleship. And both move at 40 mph or less.

With the coming of precision guided bombs, the effectiveness of our planes has drastically increased. Once it took a thousand bomber raid using tactics of questionable morality to get an even chance at taking out military targets. (Combat air support was usually a bit more effective than strategic bombing, but still had limitations.) Now, with the wonders of modern technology at our service, we can actually take out that bridge. Or that building. To the point that the primary limiting factor on the employment of air power is not the accuracy of our weapons, but of our intelligence. (In more ways than one.)

A plane can move at speeds of hundreds of miles an hour over a range in the thousands of miles and destroy anything we can detect, with near perfect reliability. The constraints are the ability to detect targets, and the bomb loads of the planes in question.

The fault, then, is not that we have foolishly mothballed battleships or canceled artillery programs. It’s that we are buying airplanes foolishly. It is natural for the Air Force and Naval, Marine and Army Aviation to go for the biggest, most expensive and technologically sophisticated aircraft they can build. We can sort of forgive them for that. We want the coolest toys, and our contractors love the money they get for designing and mismanaging high technology weapons programs. It’s also completely wrong.

Where we’ve screwed up is in buying two dozen billion dollar stealth bombers instead of a hundred less capable, higher capacity bombers. Look at the service we’re getting out of the B-52, still. The F-22 is ridiculously expensive, and seriously flawed as many have pointed out in the comments here. It’s invisible to radar. It can kill any other plane that dares to leave the ground. Bats can’t detect it. Yet, it can only carry one medium sized bomb and it’s gun has less rounds than a police revolver. It’s utility is therefore limited by the small number of credible enemy fighters for it to destroy.

The fact that the air heads are always pushing for multi-role aircraft as a “savings measure” is frankly retarded. The planes end up costing more than twice as much and aren’t as effective in either role. What we need is ground support, in quantity, to make up for two things: the fact that artillery delivers a heavy weight of fire, and the fact that my kid’s scooter is faster than most artillery.

Let’s buy a couple squadrons of F-22s, we can use them for the really tricky stuff when we go to war with China. Same with the B-2. Fine, the Air Force can be happy with that. I’m sure the naval version of the F-35 will be an adequate interceptor. Stealthy-ish and fast, it is probably more than a match for any potential air threat. Let us buy a few. Keep the research fires burning so that we can take advantage of any new tech that comes down the pike. But let’s not buy a thousand planes at a hundred mil a pop for no damn reason.

As much as I love and covet advanced technology, we need to back off just a bit. The capabilities of our potential enemies just don’t require it, and in pursuing it, we deny ourselves capabilities that we know we need, and that can be used against any enemy, large or small. A relatively small force of very high technology planes will serve to assert and maintain air superiority. Likewise, stealth bombers of various types are the kind of doorknockers we need to take out air defenses and hit high-value targets deep inside enemy territory. But using an F-22 for CAS, or relying on a billion dollar stealth bomber to loiter over an insurgency is not an optimal solution. Instead, let’s build airplanes that suit our needs.

Like that new version of the A-10 that coolhand77 suggested in the comments. Something tough, simple, and capable of carrying a double buttload of very, very smart bombs. And, of course, the modern avionics to make best use of those bombs. And why don’t we give it to the Army while we’re at it. Forcing the Army to use helicopters regardless of whether they are fit for the task is slightly daft. Modern bombs are very effective indeed – clustered munitions, smart bombs, precision guided munitions of all kinds – delivered in quantity by cheap, high-payload attack bombers will be what we need to provide support for infantry on the ground.

And let’s build a naval version. What we need – to make restoring and then crewing vastly expensive battleships unnecessary – is a replacement for the A-6. A carrier air wing that has, say, a navalized, new model A-10 capable of carrying a substantial amount of ordinance could perform the role of naval support for amphibious landings that an Superbugs and F-35’s simply cannot thanks to their limited payload capacity.

For the Air Force, a B-52 replacement based on a commercial or military cargo plane would be a cost effective way to deliver, when needed, large amounts of ordinance in a environment where control of airspace is more or less a given. The advent of stand-off weapons like the J-SOW even means that targets can be serviced from a distance even when control of the air is not complete.

For the price of one $200mil F-22, we could have twenty or so A-10s, each capable of delivering many times the weight of bombs. The A-10s we have in service have been or are being modified to better use smart weapons, but we need more, not less of this type of plane. The naval need for this sort of aircraft is even greater. Likewise, the $2bil cost of a B-2 bomber would likely give us eight B-767 bombers, each with about three times the bomb capacity of the stealth bomber.

Air power is useful, cool, and lethal. Our addiction to buying the state of the art prevents us from actually employing air power to maximum advantage.

...I can get away with fakeblogging. Like this:

I can't figure out how this entry was tagged in today's WSJ Best of the Web Today as one of the Bottom Stories of the Day:

"Marshalltown Police: Woman Stole Toilet Paper From Courthouse; Police Chief Says Butts Caught in Act" 




Oh, wait - never mind, I get it. Subtle, that Taranto. Very subtle. 

Please also note, B, that this entry is very conservative in its use of category tags, so there's that.

Murdoc, of the world famous Murdoc Online, has foolishly entrusted me with the keys to his website. I'll be guest posting over there for about a week, and you can check out my first attempt at losing him his reputation and traffic here.

Found in my daily mail from The SimplyHeadlines Experiment:

Mich. man in wheelchair takes wild ride

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - A 21-year-old man got the ride of a lifetime when his electric wheelchair became lodged in the grille of a semitrailer and was pushed down a highway for several miles at about 50 mph.

I hope he had a change of diaper with him.

Cops raid wrong place, kick man in groin

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Annapolis police raided the wrong apartment Wednesday night, using flash grenades and kicking a resident in the groin before they realized their mistake, police and the family said.

As everyone knows, a kick in the groin is guaranteed comedy gold, as long as it's someone else's groin.

Calif. man charged with killing Wee Wee

Uh...

Never mind.

As Chtulu is my witness, the heading above is copied straight from the SimplyHeadlines email. Apparently, Yahoo or AP subsequently changed it to read "Man charged with shooting pet goose". Which, honestly, doesn't even qualify as funny enough to excerpt, let alone make fun of, so if you want to read anything about that story, you'll have to just click the link above.

I am sure you all know by now, but Young Miss Hilton is going to jail!

More schadenfreude for me!

I love the pictures of her crying. Save it for the runway or your big acting break.

Someone toss her a sandwich to shut her up.

Mommy? Mommy? How OLD are you that you still need your mommy? You never should have moved out of your mother's house.

I am certain your parents are still so very proud of you, your sex tape and your irresponsibility.

************

Fortunately, I've never had a DUI in my life. Yes, I admit to probably driving when I shouldn't have. But I also plan my drunk-drunk so that I am relatively sober by the time I leave the nightclub/restaurant/house party/picnic. We all know the rules, stay to the right, stay between the lines and drive the speed limit.

She's under 30 and thin as a the finely etched lines of copper interconnect on a 300mm wafer. Her birdlike-metabolism should have her right stone sober in 30 minutes!

What kind of idiot still gets a DUI these days? On top of all that, she could afford a freakin' driver or take a cab! Sheesh. I can't AFFORD to do 45 days in jail or the legal fees for a lawyer, therefore I sober up!

I have zero sympathy. Don't f*ck with the law. You had your chance. You do the crime. You do the time.

Dumbass.

Ever wanted to know something about video codecs? I'm giving you all or nothing: read this link and know everything, or don't and know nothing. Actually, it's a well written piece, and if the mysteries of codecs have you befuddled, it should sort you right out.

Wisconsin: a manure soaked, cow-infested corner of the world inhabited by crap-beer-sozzled, squishy socialist, Scandinavian refugees. Given that they have so little to be proud of, why should we ridicule them? Silly question. Because we can.

• Badgers?! We don't need no stinkin' badgers
• You're Among Cows
• We put the "sin" in Wisconsin!
• The Carnation Coffee-Mate Non-Dairy Creamer® State
• Not just cow farmers, progressivecow farmers
• My own private Sweden
• Come see the Radiant Progressive Future in Wisconsin!
• Land of funny accents
• Familiarity breeds contempt, which is why we are so self-loathing
• We gave D&D to the world, please don’t hate us
• Eat Cheese or Die
• Cow Pie Paradise
• The State of Mustardly Love
• Wisconsin: Minty Fresh
• Forward - always forward, never straight
• A cheesy motto for a cheesy state
• We had a thin guy who lived here, but he was eaten
• More boviny goodness than you can shake a stick at, plus the stick
• Not so boring if you're drunk
• The Seasonal Affective Disorder State
• Look, jerky, I don't need to talk to you!
• Pinko commie, but in a nice Swedish way, not a bloodthirsty Russian way
• I’m a lumberjack, and I’m okay
• Milwaukie’s Best: the cause of, and solution to, all life’s problems
• Say "Cheeeese" and I'll slit your throat, fucko
• Milky Lickers
• We’ll provide the beer, cheese & bratwurst – you bring the air freshener
• Come Cut Our Cheese
• Wisconsin is like its beer: fucking close to water
• Badger Badger Badger Badger
• Western Outer New Jersey
• You’ve got a vaguely Scandinavian friend in Wisconsin
• The Cheesy, Cupric, Milky Badger State
• The best place to see a tractor on the road
• Spicy lamby nipple chops with minty pickle sour sauce!
• Out drinking your state since 1848
• Fargo’s in North Dakota, jackass
• Gateway to Michigan’s Fantabulous Upper Peninsula
• Stay Just a Little Bit Longer! Does that sound needy? Be honest.

By now, even headhunters in the highlands of New Guinea are aware that the Jesus Phone from Apple will be released on the 29th of this month. But I will have to wait a little longer to get my hands on my own personal iPhone. My current two year contract does not expire until July 17th, and I must wait until it does before starting a new one. Damn, damn, damn. Mrs. Buckethead is highly dubious of my intentions to get a new phone, especially since it costs half a grand. I have a perfectly good Motorola Razr, she says, and she's right. But the Razr doesn't have that touchscreen magic. It doesn't have the preternaturally slick interface that can only come from Apple. It doesn't have WiFi. I want an iPhone so bad I can taste it.

So check this out: a young Chinese government censor let a memorial to the victims of theTiananmen Square massacre slip past her into the paper she censors, because having grown up with censored news, she'd never heard of it.

Haw!

On the subject of the 2012 olympic logo and its relative quality, I am told by the whole internets that the prevailing opinion is "it looks like Lisa Simpson giving a blowjob."

Why yes... yes it does.

London must stand firm. They MUST NOT bow to pressure to abandon this hilarious and utterly appropriate logo! If this logo goes, the terrorists win.
 

Via CNN: Congressman indicted in global corruption case

Story Highlights

• William Jefferson faces 16 charges of bribery, obstruction, racketeering
• Louisiana Democrat's schemes reached across Atlantic, prosecutors say
• Investigators found $90,000 in Jefferson's home freezer
• Search of Capitol Hill office prompted constitutional questions

I hope that the long time between the refrigerator raid and the indictment helped the Feds guarantee this smug, smarmy, thieving fuck does hard time for the rest of his life.

It seems that Liftport, the space elevator company, is running into some serious trouble - which bodes ill for both efforts to build a beanstalk, and for friend of the Ministry Brian. Here's hoping that they get it together. I want to ride a train to space.

West Virginia is second only to New Jersey in the abuse leveled at it from the decent states. And just like not everyone can be thick-headed, rude Mafioso-wannabes living in a pestilential, polluted industrial nightmare; not everyone can be inbred, uncultured rednecks living in abject poverty amidst the wreckage of a once beautiful landscape. There is, thank heaven, only one West Virginia.

• America’s Dip Cup
• The Robert E. Byrd Memorial State
• The Mountainish State
• It seemed like a good idea at the time
• Got Teeth?
• My other car is West Virginia
• The State of Brotherly, and Sisterly, Love
• Almost Poland
• Not Just Strip Mines and Rednecks Any More. Well, Okay, Still Just Strip Mines And Rednecks.
• Because somebody has to make Virginia look good
• The Manhandle State
• Oh, honestly, people. We have a world-class orchestra. We have a university.
• Where Senator Robert E. Byrd Sends Your Federal Tax Money
• Come see our new paved roads! You paid for them!
• Now with electicity
• Where girls and grizzly bears both lick their paws
• We Figured There Was Enuff "Norths" and "News”
• Fighting Never Proved Anything, Except Who’s Better
• Where "family values" has a slightly different meaning
• One Big Happy Family
• Why’d we have to throw out the good part of the state?
• That’s “Appalachian-American” to you, fucko
• We... hey, Joe-Bob, pass me the chewin' tobakky, willya?
• New Jersey is down on its knees before Almighty God giving thanks that we are in the union
• Deliverance was filmed in South Carolina; Indeed, Our Rate of Murderous Inbred Banjoists Is Well Below That of Massachusetts
• Where cars up on blocks outnumber cars that run 3-1
• West Virginia: Better When You’re Drunk
• The non-wealthy, non-slave-ownin’, white trash Virginia
• Hateful, Talentless, War-Lovin’ Trailer Trash
• Yes, you can live in a trailer on a 45 degree slope. Why?
• Duct tape is the new chrome
• It's All Relative in West Virginia
• New Jersey is the West Virginia of the North
• Hey, we’re an oppressed minority, too
• West Virginia is the Best Virginia
• Readin’, ‘Ritin’, and Route 77 to Cleveland
• West Virginia is Bigger than France
• West Virginia Bathes More than France
• Ain’t No Lovin’ Like West Virginia Lovin’
• The Hillbilly Rape State
• Montani semper leperi
• Weird, Woebegone, West Virginia
• Semper Redneckius
• Almost Heaven, for very generous values of “almost”
• We know God hates us, ‘cause coal is so much cheaper than oil
• Just think if we was rich like them ay-rab shakes. Damitalltohell.
• The fightenest, drinkenest state in the Union
• The Moonshine State
• You ain’t a revenoor, is ya?
• The Commonwealth of Byrd
• Byrdania
• The People’s Republic of Kleegle-Byrd
• Byrdmark
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Presenting the branding icon for the 2012 games, which will encompass all marketing, communication, structures, uniforms, and all other aspects concerning the look and feel of this most significant international competition.

2012: Jagged Bits of Broken Crockery

I love a good sex scandal, probably way more than the next person.

I had to hear about Jessica Cutler from an Assistant Attorney General outside of the United States. Sex blogging is more his thing than mine (Reading them, not writing them) and he's the kind of naughty boy who'd get sucked into this sort of tale. (No pun intended.) We love public drama overspill like this. We're terrible people, which is what makes us so fun.

Anyhow, apparently she's filed for bankruptcy because she struggling to pay her bills due to a $20 million dollar lawsuit from her former paramour. He's a complete idiot for having sex with her in the first place because she's really kind of ugly. I've seen pugs with cuter faces, but who am I to compare since she's looks like a B or a C-cup in her Playboy shoot and last I checked I'm still wearing a tightly packed A. (And that's only when I'm retaining water like a dyke in the Netherlands.)

She was dumb to use their initials anyway. I give them names like 'The Chemist', 'Valentine', 'Italian Wonder Boy'. It keeps people guessing and makes men paranoid that I'm writing about them. Of course, some I don't make up, like 'Wolf'. (Of course he bites!)

Hat tip to Udandi Andi!

Patton has accused me of being overly concerned about wasting a scarce natural resource. The category tag. In this, of course, he is completely wrong. Naturally, I could have argued that over-categorizing a post dilutes the utility of tags. And I would have been right. But that wasn't the point. I was attacking him on aesthetic grounds, and just to stick a stick in his eye.

Just to prove that I am not some sort of homo-tree-hugging-enviro-commie, this post, which really is about everything, is tagged with every category we have. And, when I have a free moment, I'll add some new categories, and add them to this post.

So there.

If you're not reading The Pour, food and wine writer Eric Asmiov's blog on wine, spirits, and food for the New York Times, you're missing one of the country's leading thinkers about the good things in life, mulling over the finer points of his chosen craft from the bottom of a glass. Great, great stuff.

And, hey. If you're not "into" wine," or think beer is always at its best icy cold and mostly tasteless, then... shit. Read a little Asimov and learn something you didn't know. No pressure. But like that great drunkard So-crates said, the unexamined glass is not worth drinking.

Holy shit, the Cleveland Frigging Cavaliers are in the NBA Finals for the first time ever.

Holy frigging shit.

With my first kid's arrival growing ever more imminent, I have like any responsible father been looking forward to the day when my young son (for a son it is) gets his first chemistry set. More even then that, I have been looking forward to the day when the boy successfully blows something up using ingredients found in said chemistry set.

But apparently, that makes me a terrorist. Wired has a spectacular and detailed article about the difficulties facing home science enthusiasts these days - to buy a couple Erlenmeyer flasks is to be flagged as a producer of crystal meth, and to go so far as to purchase sulfur, potassium perchlorate, and powdered aluminum in one go is to presumptively contravene the Federal Hazardous Substances Act. We are living in strange days if the Feds are raiding private homes and carting off science stuff in the name of national security, but it's undeniably happening. As a consequence, the chilling effects are making it harder and harder (in this age where the drumbeat goes "America is losing its edge in science!") to do nifty stuff at home that kids can take with them to MIT, CalTech, or, hell, even little Hiram College, the Harvard of the Midwest.

American society in general has taken some great steps forward in ensuring the safety of young children. Many of the laws enacted to protect kids more or less do that job. But for my dollar, just as I oughta be able to smoke a fat doob in the comfort of my own living room and watch Blazing Saddles, and just as I oughta be able to procure Vioxx for myself if that's what takes care of the chronic pain that keeps me from any kind of rewarding life and I'm fully aware of the risks of heart attack that I am taking on, I oughta be able to spend some time with my kid making stinks, crystals, and small scale bangs in the garage.

Glenn Reynolds has been posting recently about a few books that I'm surely going to keep around the house: the recently published The Dangerous Book for Boys and 211 Things a Bright Boy Can Do, and The American Boy's Handy Book, originally published in 1888 and featuring all manner of entertainingly dated knowledge like how to make a blowgun, and the rudiments of home taxidermy.

I can't in good conscience raise children who can't use a screwdriver, can't light a fire with two matches, have never made a home volcano, and have never had the oh-shit thrill of packing a D size rocket engine inside a B-rated model rocket and watching that sonofabitch fly high and drift at least a half-mile off course into the housing development three treelines away. It wouldn't be American.

We are in the home stretch now for the interminable Perfidy continuing educational series, "new mottoes for boring states." To be frank, I don't know what I'm going to do when it's all over. What will I post on? Countries? Continents? Well, while I ponder that, you can peruse our suggestions for the sappy state of Washington:

• Come See Why Cobain Committed Suicide
• Not just Evergreen, SuperGreen
• Where even the Tear Gas is environmentally friendly
• Look Good in Flannel
• Don’t screw with us, or we’ll sic the Killer Whales on your ass
• With Gates, all things are possible
• Help! We're Overrun By Nerds and Slackers!
• Al-ki is not short for “Alcoholic”
• Nirvana, it ain't
• No, the Capitol has "DC" after its name
• Where Californians go to die
• Home of Frasier
• Come for the Retarded Protesters -- Stay for the Over-roasted Coffee!
• The Old Boeing State
• We hate that pretentious Eddie Vedder fuck, too
• We are a state, not the a craphole Federal District
• We are the first, and likely the last, state to be named after a president
• A wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft-Starbucks GmbH.
• Not The Cool Washington, The Other One
• Keep Washington Green, Grow Even More Hemp
• Getting there is all the fun
• Our heroes are Injuns we kilt a hundred years ago
• The New Jersey of the Great Northwest
• We like our state, so STAY THE FUCK OUT!
• Our state tree is the Hemlock for a reason
• All the grim raininess of England, without the history
• Gateway to Alaska
• Experience Washington, no, Experience Washington
• Bigfoot’s gonna git ya
• 54-40 or Fight!
• If it’s not ecologically sound, it’s crap
• Proud home of D.B. Cooper
• SayWAtf
• The People’s Republic of Ecotopia
• Geeks, Freaks, and Treehuggers welcome!
• Grunge wannabes will be interned in our re-education camps

What do these two suits have in common?

"Couple sue Wal-Mart over slip in vomit" 
(AP/Nashville Tennessean)

and 

"ACLU: Boeing offshoot helped CIA" 
(AP/Houston Chronicle) Simple:

• They each have a distinct odor associated with them
• They're both based on slippery circumstances
• They're both as baseless as the day is long

Only one of them, however, appears to have been categorized by the Associated Press as an "Odd Story". So let's look at that one first:

Couple sue Wal-Mart over slip in vomit DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) -- A woman's fall in a puddle of vomit has resulted in a lawsuit against Wal-Mart. June Medema, slipped in the vomit at a Davenport Wal-Mart on June 13, 2005, according to the lawsuit, filed by Medema and her husband, James, in Scott County District Court earlier this month.

Medema claims that she was seriously injured in the fall.

The lawsuit alleges that Wal-Mart's negligence led to Medema's fall, but it does not specifically say how the store was negligent.

John Simley, a Wal-Mart spokesman, decline comment saying he hadn't seen the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims that Medema suffered serious neck and upper back injuries in the fall and has undergone several surgeries and is unable to work.

It's a mercifully short story, so it's included here in its entirety. All you need to know is in that third paragraph - "...but it does not specifically say how the store was negligent." In order to prove negligence, of course, the Medemas will have to prove that Wal-Mart knew the vomit was puddled on the floor. Which will be rather difficult - if they didn't see it, why should Wal-Mart have done so?

As to the second story, I can completely understand the ACLU going after a Boeing subsidiary - They can't sue the US government or the CIA on a classified matter, so they simply picked someone else in the transaction chain to sue.

NEW YORK — A Boeing Co. subsidiary that may have provided secret CIA flight services was sued Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of three terrorism suspects who claim they were tortured by the U.S. government. The lawsuit charges that flight services provided by Jeppesen Dataplan Inc. enabled the clandestine transportation of the suspects to secret overseas locations, where they were tortured and subjected to other "forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment."

The ACLU, of course, has been known to provide valuable legal services. They've also been known to tilt at windmills in pursuit of an agenda that tends to be decidedly leftist. Not "liberal" - leftist. As I said, I can understand their grasping at straws to find someone to sue, because money-grubbers have to go where the money is, even if they expect to get no money out of the matter.

I just can't understand why they think their suit will survive a summary judgment request. Jeppesen Dataplan didn't man the flight, didn't own the plane, and didn't load or unload alleged passengers from the alleged extraordinary alleged rendition alleged mission. Jeppesen provides flight planning services. Logistics.

Undaunted by this bit of reality, the ACLU soldiers on:

The ACLU said the company "either knew or reasonably should have known" that they were facilitating the torture of terrorism suspects by providing flight services for the CIA.

That's one of the ten most absurd things I've read in the last 48 hours. Having been on flights which used the services of flight planning companies like Jeppesen, and having occasionally been with the pilot when he was planning the flight, I'm comfortable asserting that in no case did a flight services vendor demand to know, let alone show even the slightest interest in, what the purpose of the flight was. Which is just as well - it would have been none of their business, and they'd have been told as much.

It occurs to me that there are two other things these two suits have in common - they're both weakly disguised fundraising attempts, and neither one will be successful at anything other than garnering publicity for its plaintiff.

Also posted at issuesblog.com