By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

Russia’s dictator-for-life Vladimir Putin is every bit as sinister and evil as Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Mao Tse-tung.[2] He is a ruthless killer—of his own people and others, and of the human spirit.  Recently, he warned against despotism and chaos in Russia[3], which is equivalent to Hitler warning against the death camps, or Stalin and Mao warning against the ravages of communism.  Putin is the face of America’s enemies today, personified, as well as the enemy of free peoples everywhere.  He is responsible for the dismantling of Russia’s incipient democracy.[4] Despots like him are destroyed ultimately.  However, in the interim, the death and destruction they bring about are savage, barbaric and tragic.  Like a Mob boss, Putin is apt to die a cruel and horrible death, mirroring the cruelty that he and his ex-KGB lackeys have brought to so many in Russia and elsewhere.

He was born in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg; and he joined the KGB officially when he was 23, and rose through its ranks.  He came to prominence as a KGB operative in East Germany—or the DDR, as it was known before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Erich Honecker’s government—which was one of the most repressive regimes in the Soviet Union’s orbit, or the Evil Empire.  Russia has a brutal history, especially since the rise of communism; and Putin is a product of that system.  Stalin and Mao were the most ruthless killers of their own people[5], and that is Putin’s heritage.  He learned his craft well; and he must be viewed in this context, not as some Westernized Russian democrat, which he is not.  Under Putin, Stalin’s reputation has undergone a renaissance, despite being the killer of more than 30 million men, women and children who were his own countrymen.[6] Putin is Stalin’s heir.

Some people argue there is a “soft side” to Putin, and that he has been principled and acted in the best interests of Russia.  Indeed, it is argued that he fended off his ex-KGB lackeys in the selection of Dmitry Medvedev as Russia’s President, when Putin was ineligible to run for a third consecutive presidential term because of constitutionally-mandated term limits.  Stalin, Hitler and Mao had soft sides too.  Like Putin, they smiled and were shown in “photo ops” befriending children and women.  In reality, they were butchers just as Putin is.  Yes, the numbers of innocent people killed may differ among the four of them.  However, each one brutally repressed democratic forces, systematically killed their own countrymen and others, and decimated the human spirit.[7] When Putin was coming to power, I was told by an old friend on Capitol Hill that he was a “smoother version” of Stalin, and I will never forget those prescient and ominous words.

Russia is not a Third World country today, but it is close—and certainly it is no longer a superpower.  Based on its gross domestic product (GDP), it ranks behind Italy, Brazil, Spain and Canada; and it is less than nine percent the size of the United States.[8] Its military expenditures are 9.5 percent of the American spending[9]; and its antiquated Soviet-era conscript military was on display in Georgia.  Indeed, Putin left the Olympic games in Beijing and traveled to the Georgian border, where he directed the Kremlin’s cruel aggression against its vastly smaller neighbor.  Today, the U.S. military has no peers; and when arrayed against “paper tigers” and backlot bullies like Putin’s Russia, Americans can be proud of what George W. Bush accomplished.

He kept American safe and strong; however, there are serious questions whether Barack Obama is building on and not diminishing that strength.  The idea that the U.S. and Russia would agree in principle on a deal to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) with a new agreement that would cut each side’s nuclear arsenal is absurd.[10] The Russians cannot be trusted; and Obama’s weakness is on display when he cuts any deals with Putin.  China must be America’s focus of attention, not the backwater country of Russia.  China must be included in any agreement, or else the cart is placed before the horse.  Also, Obama surrendered to Putin by scrapping Bush’s proposed antiballistic missile shield for Eastern Europe—in the Czech Republic and Poland—which emboldened Putin and sent the worst signals possible to our allies in “New Europe.”[11]

Those who “scold” Putin are subjected to harsh dictatorial rebukes, at the very least.[12] His treatment of others is strikingly similar to how Stalin, Hitler and Mao treated their adversaries.  Prison without trial—or “kangaroo trials”—has been commonplace.[13] More often than not, they disappear or are ruthlessly killed to send loud and clear messages to those who challenge the dictator, or otherwise might be considered “enemies of the state.”  Like Stalin before him, the full extent of Putin’s atrocities will never be known; and his “fingerprints” will not be found on the “murder weapons.”  However, make no mistake about it: none of it would have happened without him.

In addition to what has been described above, it is useful to catalog some of the more heinous crimes and horrors that have happened since he came to power, for which he is responsible directly or indirectly:

•  Russian apartment bombings in September 1999, which led the country into the Second Chechen War, and brought Putin to power.[14]

•  The assassination in London of former Russian state security officer Alexander Litvinenko who claimed, inter alia, that Putin ordered the Russian apartment bombings.[15]

•  The Dioxin poisoning of Victor Yushchenko, which left the Ukrainian President’s face greatly disfigured, jaundiced, bloated, and pockmarked.[16]

•  The brutal “Second Chechen War,” in which Russian troops entered Chechnya and took control over the country, with unofficial estimates ranging from 25,000 to 50,000 dead or having “disappeared.”[17]

•  A widespread crackdown on media freedoms, with Russian reporters being killed and muzzled—such as the shooting death of Anna Politkovskaya[18]—and media outlets being shut down.[19]

•  Miscellaneous jailings, killings and disappearances—including one of Putin’s mistresses.[20]

At some point in time, he will be eliminated and disappear from the pages of history, just like so many other two-bit, tinhorn despots before him.  Again, it is apt to happen violently, in an instant.  Regardless of how he departs, one can only hope that it happens soon—and his reign of terror and that of his ex-KGB lackeys ends, like it did for Stalin, Hitler, Mao and their thugs.  The sooner the better.[21]

© 2010, Timothy D. Naegele

[2] See, e.g., http://www.naegele.com/documents/StalinMaoHolocausts.pdf

[3] See http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.4578e814909f0ad722594e6c798584f9.4c1&show_article=1

[4] See, e.g., http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-russia-democracy24-2010jan24,0,3025105,full.story (“[A] democracy museum about Putin, the man whose ascent to power was marked by the loss of a free press, the unsolved killings of political critics and harsh crackdowns on antigovernment protests”)

[5] See, e.g., http://www.naegele.com/documents/StalinMaoHolocausts.pdf (“Aside from ordering the killing of those in the Soviet hierarchy, it is estimated that Stalin was responsible for the deaths of more than 30 million men, women and children—his own countrymen—including millions during the collectivization of the Soviet farms in the 1930s.  . . .  [A]s the Soviets moved through Germany, they raped at least two million German women in what is now acknowledged as the largest case of mass rape in history.”)

[6] See id.

[7] See, e.g., http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118463398015768385.html?mod=googlenews_wsj (“Russia has become, in the precise sense of the word, a fascist state.  It does not matter here, as the Kremlin’s apologists are so fond of pointing out, that Mr. Putin is wildly popular in Russia: Popularity is what competent despots get when they destroy independent media, stoke nationalistic fervor with military buildups and the cunning exploitation of the Church, and ride a wave of petrodollars to pay off the civil service and balance their budgets.  Nor does it matter that Mr. Putin hasn’t re-nationalized the ‘means of production’ outright; corporatism was at the heart of Hitler’s economic policy, too.”)

[8] See, e.g., https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2195.html (2009 est.) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29 (2009 est.)

[9] See, e.g., http://www.sipri.org/yearbook/2009/05/05A and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures#Chart_by_country_or_organization

[10] See http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7013042.ece; see also http://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/emp-attack-only-30-million-americans-survive/

[11] See, e.g., http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/world/europe/18shield.html; see also http://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/the-end-of-barack-obama; http://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/barack-obama-america%E2%80%99s-second-emperor; http://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/26/obama-in-afghanistan-doomed-from-the-start; http://www.philstockworld.com/2009/10/11/greenspan%E2%80%99s-legacy-more-suffering-to-come/

[12] See, e.g., http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/58572/ (“Few Russians in positions of power dare to openly criticise Putin. . . .”); http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6145UJ20100205 (“Putin told the leaders [of his United Russia party] to warn voters of the consequences of voting for untried opposition parties.  United Russia must always explain that ‘proper and well organized leaders are always capable of solving any problems and that in the absence of such leaders, anarchy prevails,’ he said.”)

One of the “untried opposition parties” to which Putin was referring is former World Chess Champion—many people consider him the greatest chess player of all time—Garry Kasparov’s “The Other Russia,” a coalition that opposes Putin’s government.  See http://www.theotherrussia.org/ Indeed, Kasparov has vowed to “restore democracy” to Russia by toppling Putin, of whom he is an outspoken critic.

Kasparov has said: “An anti-democratic regime can be neither reformed nor modernized; it can only be dismantled.  All the hope that goes into finding a way to somehow reform or perfect the current system is in vain.  It’s impossible, because the essence of the system will remain the same.”  See http://www.theotherrussia.org/2010/02/03/kasparov-russias-european-choice/ He adds: “After a year and a half of [Dmitry] Medvedev’s tenure as president of Russia, Putin’s authoritarian regime has only become more severe.”  See id.

[13] See, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Vladimir_Putin#Relations_with_.22oligarchs.22 (e.g., the criminal prosecution and imprisonment of Russia’s richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, president of Yukos oil company, as payback for his support of Putin’s opponents); http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Khodorkovsky

[14] See, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Vladimir_Putin#Domestic_terrorism_accusations (“The chain of command was as follows: Putin (former director of the secret service, future president) – Patrushev (Putin’s successor as director of the secret service) – secret service General German Ugryumov (director of the counter-terrorism department).  Maxim Lazovsky (the owner of Lanako, the company that employed the secret service agents behind the 1994-5 terrorist attacks) and Lieutenant-Colonel Abubakar were two secret service operatives directly responsible for the practical organization of the bombings.” [Yuri Felshtinsky and Vladimir Pribylovsky, "The Age of Assassins. The Rise and Rise of Vladimir Putin," Gibson Square Books, London, 2008, p. 106]); see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin

[15] See, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Vladimir_Putin#Domestic_terrorism_accusations; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowing_up_Russia:_Terror_from_within and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubyanka_Criminal_Group; see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko

[16] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Yushchenko#Dioxin_poisoning (“On September 27, 2009 Yushchenko said in an interview . . . that the testimony of the three men who were at a dinner in 2004 at which he believes he was poisoned were staying in Russia.  Ukrainian prosecutors said Russia has refused to extradite one of the men, the former deputy chief of Ukraine’s security service, Volodymyr Satsyuk, because he holds both Russia and Ukrainian citizenship.”)

[17] See, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Chechen_War; see also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chechnya#Human_rights (“In 2006 Human Rights Watch reported that pro-Moscow Chechen forces under the effective command of President Ramzan Kadyrov, as well as federal police personnel, used torture to get information about separatist forces.  ‘If you are detained in Chechnya, you face a real and immediate risk of torture.  And there is little chance that your torturer will be held accountable,’ said Holly Cartner, Director Europe and Central Asia division of HRW.”); http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/11/12/chechnya-research-shows-widespread-and-systematic-use-torture; see id. (“On July 1, 2009, Amnesty International released a detailed report covering the human rights violations committed by the Russian Federation against Chechnyan citizens.  Among the most prominent features was that those abused had no method of redress against assaults, ranging from kidnapping to torture, while those responsible were never held accountable.  This lead to the conclusion that Chechnya was being ruled without law, being run into further devastating destabilization.”); see http://www.naegele.com/documents/AmnestyInternational-RussianFederation-Rulewithoutlaw.pdf

[18] See, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Vladimir_Putin#Allegations_of_political_assassinations_and_muzzling_of_reporters (“On October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who ran a campaign exposing corruption in the Russian army and its conduct in Chechnya, and a strong critic of Putin and the FSB, whom she had accused of trying to set up a Soviet-style dictatorship, was killed.  She was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow.”); http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya

The Federal Security Service—or FSB—is the main domestic security agency of the Russian Federation, and the successor agency of the dreaded Soviet-era Cheka, NKVD and KGB.

[19] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alina_Kabayeva#Marriage_controversy

[20] See, e.g., http://news.oneindia.in/2010/02/08/mumof-vladimir-putins-love-childvanishes.html (“The woman who gave birth to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s love child[, Russian gymnast, Alina Kabayeva,] is said to have vanished”); see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alina_Kabayeva#Marriage_controversy; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin#Family_and_personal_life

[21] See also, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/12/georgia (Obama adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski has described Putin as “following a course that is horrifyingly similar to that taken by Stalin and Hitler in the 1930s”)

(Written 19th May 2009)

I was in Colombo yesterday, the day they overran the LTTE.

In the grand scheme of things, maybe it wasn’t a world event. It made international headlines for a couple of days. The overthrow of a notorious rebel group. The slaughter of a group of men dubbed psychopaths and meglomaniacs, along with several hundred of their most stalwart fighters. More than thirty years of implied and overt conflict, finally brought to a bloody and inauspicious end at the edge of a salty lagoon on a strip of sandy coastline that few people- other than its locals- have ever seen or heard of- let alone know how to pronounce properly. Mired in controversy amidst allegations of human rights abuses on all sides and the alleged slaughter of cilivians.

Click here to keep reading…

There’s a revelation buried in a Washington Post article by Dana Priest which described how the Obama administration has adopted the Bush policy of targeting selected American citizens for assassination if they are deemed (by the Executive Branch) to be Terrorists.

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair said in each case a decision to use lethal force against a U.S. citizen must get special permission. . . . Before an American citizen can be placed on the assassination list, consider from whom that “permission” is obtained:  the President, or someone else under his authority within the Executive Branch.  There are no outside checks or limits at all on how these “factors” are weighed.

In last week’s post, I wrote about all the reasons why it’s so dangerous — as well as both legally and Consitutionally dubious — to allow the President to kill American citizens not on an active battlefield during combat, but while they are sleeping, sitting with their families in their home, walking on the street, etc.  That’s basically giving the President the power to impose death sentences on his own citizens without any charges or trial.

Do we really want the President to be able to make this decision unilaterally and without outside checks?  Remember when many Democrats were horrified (or at least when they purported to be) at the idea that Bush was merely eavesdropping on American citizens without judicial approval?  Shouldn’t we be at least as concerned about the President’s being able to assassinate Americans without judicial oversight?  That seems much more Draconian to me.

Noting a campaign to deny “accused Terrorists” access to lawyers and a real trial, Adam Serwer wrote: “You can be denied rights not through due process of law but merely based on the nature of the crime you are suspected of committing.”

Salon

clipped from www.foxnews.com

American and British forces poised to assault the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, have begun targeting insurgent leaders for assassination, The Sunday Times reported.

Special forces have been infiltrating the town on “kinetic” missions — jargon for armed attacks.

“Special forces guys have been going in on assassination missions with the aim of decapitating the Taliban force,” a military source told the Sunday Times.

It’s all quotes this week:

• “Remember when many Democrats were horrified (or at least when they purported to be) at the idea that Bush was merely eavesdropping on American citizens without judicial approval?  Shouldn’t we be at least as concerned about the President’s being able to assassinate Americans without judicial oversight?” – Glenn Greenwald
• “I think the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina.” – Arne Duncan
• “The man (along with Glenn Beck and others in the right-wing talk radio circuit) is a jackass and a lout.” – Harold Pollack
• “Pretty much the whole political world has been buzzing about this. But so far, nothing has come of it.” – Elizabeth Benjamin

Apparently, there is some kind of sporting event this weekend that people are all excited about.

Go Saints!

Dubai may seek Bibi’s arrest over Hamas man’s assassination

Dubai to issue arrest warrant for Netanyahu should it turn out that Mossad killed al-Mabhouh, senior official says

Article: TNetNews

Dubai will be issuing an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should it turn out that the Mossad was behind a recent assassination of a senior Hamas man in the Emirates, a police official said Thursday.

The senior official told the al-Jazeera network that Dubai will seek to arrest PM Netanyahu “because of the fact that he was the one to approve the execution of the crime in the United Arab Emirates.”

Senior Hamas member Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was murdered in a Dubai hotel on January 20th. However, Hamas only publicized the assassination nine days later.

On Monday, Hamas’ Muhammad Nazal charged that al-Mabhouh was attacked by Mossad agents who ambushed him in his hotel room.

“When he arrived, they surprised him,” Nazal said.

On Wednesday, Dubai Chief of Police Lieutenant Colonel Dahi Khalfan Tamim warned both Hamas and the Mossad against operating in Dubai territory behind the backs of local authorities.

“Anyone trying to operate behind our back should watch his own back,” Tamim said to the London-based newspaper El-Shark El-Awsat.

“This applies to all intelligence agencies in the world,” he continued, “whether Mossad, Hamas or any other intelligence organization.”

Wow. They really are a bunch of half-wit, inbred, sacks of shit. Because, you know… when HAMAS launches an attack or assassinates someone… they give GREAT beforehand notice. This, people, is why breeding with your cousins/sisters/brothers/mothers/fathers is a bad, bad thing. It causes you to think like Hamas.

If we catch or detain a foreign Terrorist, Like Khalid Sheik Mohammed or the Panty Bomber they get all the Constitutional Rights they are NOT entitled to.

But if an American goes native and becomes a Terrorist, the Government has the right to kill you.

Assassination.

And the Obama Administration is in on it.

Washington Times: Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair said in each case a decision to use lethal force against a U.S. citizen must get special permission.”We take direct actions against terrorists in the intelligence community,” he said. “If we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that.”

He also said there are criteria that must be met to authorize the killing of a U.S. citizen that include “whether that American is involved in a group that is trying to attack us, whether that American is a threat to other Americans. Those are the factors involved.”

But if they are a foreign nationals, they get Miranda & Constitution Rights.

The World truly has gone coo-coo.

If you’re a white 85 year old woman in a wheelchair, you’ll get strip searched at the airport. But if your a Muslim or a minority or any kind you’ll sail through without so much as a by-your-leave because the politically correct don’t want to offend you.

Regardless of the fact that virtually every terrorist attack in the last 40 years has been a Muslim.

Mr. Blair’s remarks follow a report in The Washington Post last week that disclosed President Obama had personally authorized a Christmas eve drone attack against Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen in Yemen who is chief cleric for the terrorist group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Al-Awlaki is thought to have survived the attack.

Al-Awlaki was in contact with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who tried and failed to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day.

Al-Awlaki was a former imam at a Falls Church, Va., mosque where Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the officer accused of killing 13 of his fellow service members at Fort Hood on Nov. 5, is said to have attended sermons and sought his advice over e-mail.

So they tried to assassinate an American citizen who is a Radical Muslim Iman, but when one of his operatives is captured trying to blow himself up on a plane with Americans on it, headed to an American city, He gets 50 minutes of stern talking to and then Mirandized and Constitutional Rights!!

And a parishioner of his gets a promotion and sent to Texas where he goes nuts and kills people. But the President and others won’t call him a Terrorists or a radical muslim!!

No wonder Liberals are insane.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra: “So there is a framework and a policy for what’s hypothetically a radical born cleric … who’s living outside of the United States, there’s a clear path as to when this person may be engaging in free speech overseas and when he may have moved into recruitment or when he may have moved into actual coordinating and carrying out or coordinating attacks against the United States?”

Mr. Blair responded that he would rather not discuss the details of this criteria in open session, but he assured: “We don’t target people for free speech. We target them for taking action that threatens Americans or has resulted in it.”

But if we catch them and bring them back to this country they get Constitutional Rights!

Has your head exploded yet?

He added, “The reason I went this far in open session is I just don’t want other Americans who are watching to think that we are careless about endangering … lives at all. But we especially are not careless about endangering American lives, as we try to carry out the policies to protect most of the country and I think we ought to go into details in closed session.”

What about OUR LIVES , back here at home, YOU policy wonk!

One American (for example), Seattle-born jihadist Ruben Shumpert, was killed by a U.S. missile strike in Somalia. Shumpert was a known Islamist wanted by federal authorities on gun charges. He fled the country after being charged in this country.

Mr. Blair also said in his testimony that the charter for a special unit to interrogate terrorists known as the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, or HIG, was signed last week and that the HIG was now fully operational.

This the group Obama said would replace the torturers of the Bush Administration.

DOJ Website: Attorney General Eric Holder today announced that the Special Task Force on Interrogations and Transfer Policies, which was created pursuant to Executive Order 13491 on Jan. 22, 2009, has proposed that the Obama Administration establish a specialized interrogation group to bring together officials from law enforcement, the U.S. Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense to conduct interrogations in a manner that will strengthen national security consistent with the rule of law.

Only it took over a year and a foreign national with a bomb in his underwear for anyone to do anything about it!

Almost like, he was ignoring it. Hoping it would just go away, if we’re nice to them.

And as for strengthening national security? Yeah right…

Kind of reminds me of the Monty Python “Spanish Inquisition” sketch.

FETCH HIM “THE COMFY CHAIR”! and  a lawyer and he has full American Constitutional Rights.

Now do you wanna Talk?

Oh, Good Grief….

Remember when many Democrats were horrified (or at least when they purported to be) at the idea that Bush was merely eavesdropping on American citizens without judicial approval?  Shouldn’t we be at least as concerned about this President being able to assassinate Americans without judicial oversight?

Remember the feigned outrage at even the hint of Bush “spying” on American Citizens?

I’m sure we’ll get the usual Liberal response from Obama and Company, “it’s overblown”, “it’s no big deal”…move along.

Or their ultimate favorite,well, Bush did it too!

And the Ministry of Truth (Mainstream Media) will do their best to either ignore it or downplay it.

From the liberal Salon.com: And if the Fifth Amendment’s explicit guarantee — that one shall not be deprived of life without due process — does not prohibit the U.S. Government from assassinating you without any process, what exactly does it prohibit?

It’s amusing, in a very cynical way, to watch Liberals squirm in their own insanity.

Watching the Orwellian Doublethink just grind away as the contradiction just cause a short in their thinking  is amusing in deeply sad way.

And then they just reconcile themselves to believing both ways are true and that they are still superior and just move on.

Liberalism truly is a mental disorder.

This from Firedoglake, a liberal blog as far left as is humanly possible: They seem to lay the blame on Republicans while decrying the whole practice- a study in contradiction:

We have been focusing all of our powers of telecom surveillance on Anwar al-Awlaki for at least a year (and probably far longer). Our government has tracked not only what he has said on jihadist websites, but also knows precisely what he has been emailing and presumably saying on the phone.

But none of that stuff, before Christmas Day, even merited an indictment.

And then–perhaps only because of the testimony from Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (The Panty Bomber) that Republicans have shrieked for weeks was inadequate–the Government moved from having no charges against al-Awlaki to attempting to assassinate him.

“Whether that American is involved in a group that is trying to attack us, whether that American has — is a threat to other Americans. Those are the factors involved.” Blair explained. “We don’t target people for free speech. We target them for taking action that threatens Americans.”

So how long before they come after those who are “Enemies of the State”??

Namely you and me.

If you can assassinate an American on Foreign soil why can’t you assassinate one here?

So you’re best defense is to be a Foreign Terrorist.

If you succeed you kill lots of evil infidels.

If you don’t, you get Constitutional Rights, a Lawyer, and a platform to spew your hatred from before they lock you up and you become a Matyr to the cause.

Now, that’s the ticket!

Only in Obama’s America!

Is anyone even remotely surprised that President Obama reserves the right to assassinate US citizens for any reason (or no reason at all)? Should you be so unfortunate as to incur Mr. Obama’s displeasure, you may wake up one morning to find yourself on the business end of an M-16 assault rifle and a grimly determined marine dispatched to “take out the threat” (i.e. you). You need not be on a battlefield  or even have committed any crime – Mr. Obama merely has to label you an “enemy combatant”. You can gain this unfortunate moniker for such acts as speaking out against the American occupation of your country, consorting with “unknown elements”, or, indeed, no reason at all.

It is clear, as Mr. Greenwald repeatedly points out, that such extra-judicial presidential murders are unconstitutional and a dangerous new investment of power into the Executive Branch. One recalls the massive powers President Bush gave himself as a “war president” to craft legislation (via “signing statements), unilaterally declare war, imprison “enemy combatants” without trial or habeas corpus, interrogate by torture, and send CIA hit squads all around the globe. One wonders, however, if even Mr. Bush would have assumed the right to kill American citizens wherever, whenever, and however he wished.

During his campaign, Mr. Obama naturally spoke out against the vast powers accumulated under the Bush Administration. Mr. Bush was terribly unpopular, after all, and Mr. Obama had to distance himself from him as best he could. Let’s take a look at what he said then:

Regarding warrantless wiretapping and Telecom immunity:

1/28/2008, Campaign statement: “I strongly oppose retroactive immunity in the FISA bill. Ever since 9/11, this Administration has put forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand. The FISA court works. The separation of power works. We can trace, track down and take out terrorists while ensuring that our actions are subject to vigorous oversight, and do not undermine the very laws and freedom that we are fighting to defend.”

Mr. Obama voted for the FISA bill (which he “strongly opposed”), only six months later.

Regarding separation of powers:

10/2/2007, Speech at DePaul University: “We face real threats. Any President needs the latitude to confront them swiftly and surely. But we’ve paid a heavy price for having a President whose priority is expanding his own power. The Constitution is treated like a nuisance. Matters of war and peace are used as political tools to bludgeon the other side.”

We continue to pay that “heavy price”, as Mr. Obama has taken for himself powers which even Mr. Bush would have blushed to demand.

Regarding indefinite detention:

Q: Does the Constitution permit a president to detain US citizens without charges as unlawful enemy combatants?

A: No. I reject the Bush Administration’s claim that the President has plenary authority under the Constitution to detain U.S. citizens without charges as unlawful enemy combatants.

- Boston Globe Questionaire, December, 2007

Well, apparently he didn’t like that answer, because almost immediately after his inaguaration, he redacted it. Now, not only does he think the Constitution allows detention without charges, Mr. Obama has come to believe that under the Constitution, the President has the power to impose arbitary death sentances upon any of his subjects who dare incur his wrath.

Here is the most tragic part:

2/26/2008, Speech in Cleveland: “It’s time to give our intelligence and law enforcement agencies the tools they need to track down and take out terrorists, while ensuring that their actions are subject to vigorous oversight that protects our freedom. So let me be perfectly clear: I have taught the Constitution, I understand the Constitution, and I will obey the Constitution when I am President of the United States.”

You see, once upon a time, before being seduced by the Dark Side, Mr. Obama was an upstanding constitutional lawyer, and even taught classes on the subject. In fact, that was a major appeal to his candidacy – since he was a constitutional lawyer by profession he would surely have more respect for that document than his predecessor Mr. Bush, who likely had never once read it. I have no idea what happened to Mr. Obama between 2/26/2008 and his inauguration, but something has surely changed his mind on these issues.

Above: Underground Rio van service vehicle, loaded with black-clad corpses wearing combat boots. See Rio de Janeiro: “Carobinha Death Toll Reaches 10″

A childhood friend — we used to play Stock Market while listening to the White Album over and over and over as kids — recently wrote me through Facebook, asking for advice to pass on to a colleague who will spend Carnaval in Rio this year.

Number one on the list of directives: Never hail a taxi on the street. The infamousSimpsons episode on Rio — which offended many Brazilians — was actually directly on point on this subject.

Ideally, hire a cab through the doorman of your hotel — make him your friend! –and make a side deal with the same trusted driver to drop you off and pick you up wherever you are going.

Top story in the O Globo daily of Rio this morning: 4,000 pirate cabs still in operation.

And as a sidebar, another apparent assassination involving the other major branch of black-market transportation in Rio: underground van services.

Favela residents really heavily on VW vans to get around parts of the city where no formal bus services is provided.

The services are controlled by “militias” — paramilitary protection rackets comprising cops and firemen supplementing their income, mainly — and the turf battles get ugly. See

• Rio: “Nextel Cell in Van War Hell”
• Rio: Deadly Days for the Man With the Van
• Rio: “Police Arrested In Murder May Have Run ‘Van Mafia’”

I translate in haste para inglês ver.

RIO – A polícia prendeu nesta quarta-feira o suspeito de ter matado o subsecretário de Transportes de Niterói , Adhemar Reis, no dia 20 de janeiro. O sargento da Polícia Militar Adair Correia da Silva Filho, conhecido como Daizinho, foi preso pela manhã no 35º BPM (Itaboraí), onde é lotado. O delegado responsável pelo caso, Mario da Silva, da 77ª DP (Icaraí), investiga também quem seria o mandante do crime. Adair Correia já havia sido preso em novembro de 2008, acusado de envolvimento com a máfia das vans no município de São Gonçalo, mas continuava na ativa.

The police arrested a suspect Wednesday in the 20 January murder of Niterói municipal transportation undersecretary Adhemar Reis. Military police sergeant Adair “Daizinho” Correia da Silva Filho was arrested Wednesday morning at the 35th Military Police Battalion in Itaboraí where he is stationed. The state judicial police official in charge of the case, Mario da Silva of the 77th Precinct in Icaraí, is also looking into who may have ordered the crime. Daizinho had previously been arrested in November 2008, accused of involvement in the “van mafia” in São Gonçalvo, but remained on active duty.

Niteroí is a neighboring city connected to Rio by the famous causeway — one of the “Pharaonic labors” of the generalíssimo regime, 1964-1985.

(Gilson: Acusado denunciou crimes e teve prisão revogada em 2009)

[RELATED STORY LINK] Gilson: Accused denounced crimes and was released in 2009.

- Acreditamos que o PM não tenha assassinado o subsecretário por uma motivação pessoal. As investigações apontam que ele foi contratado para executar visando aos interesses ilícitos de uma outra pessoa ou até de um grupo – disse o delegado.

“We believe the policeman did not murder the official for personal reasons. Investigations indicate that he was hired to execute the man in order to serve the illegal interests of another individual, or possibly a group of individuals,” the investigator said.

Segundo a policia, o sargento vai responder pelo crime de homicídio qualificado e pode ser condenado a 30 anos de prisão. O preso foi levado ao Batalhão Especial Prisional, onde deverá cumprir a prisão temporária de 30 dias. Procurada, a PM não respondeu por que o sargento continuava na ativa, mesmo acusado de diversos crimes.

Police say the sergeant will be tried for first degree murder and could be sentenced to 30 years in prison. The prisoner was taken to the Special Detention Battalion of the military police, where he will serve a temporary detainment of 30 days. Sought for comment, the military police did not respond to the question of why the sergeant remained on active duty despite being accused of various crimes.

That is, the Policia Civil want him tried by a civilian court on a common criminal charge. Typically, the Polícia Militar will want him tried by a military court — courts notoriously reluctant to convict their comrades in arms. That is why he is being housed in disciplinary barracks rather than a common jail.

- Os autos indicam que o crime foi premeditado e foi praticado com o objetivo de garantir vantagens ilícitas. Além do mais, a vítima não teve a menor possibilidade de defesa – explicou o delegado Mario da Silva.

“The case file indicates that the crime was premeditated and carried out for the purpose of obtaining illegal advantages. Furthermore, the victim had no opportunity to defend himself,” said da Silva.

“… for the purpose of obtaining illegal advantages”: for money.

O preso foi reconhecido por testemunhas .O acusado já tentou duas vezes se eleger vereador por São Gonçalo, sem sucesso. Ele também já havia sido preso em sua casa, naquele município, em novembro de 2008, por agentes da Delegacia Repressão às Ações Criminosas Organizadas (Draco) que cumpriam mandados de prisão contra envolvidos com a máfia das vans.

The accused was recognized by witnesses to the crime. He had run unsuccessfully for the  São Gonçalo city council on two occasions. He had also been arrested at his home in November 2008 by agents of DRACO, the anti-organized crime division of the state judicial police, as they served arrest warrants on persons suspected of involvement in the van mafia.

State and city politics + cops + militias + traditional organized crime = the Brazilian version of Colombian parapolítica.

Source: O Globo, 4 February 2010.

History tells us that Sydney’s salubrious North Shore suburbs are not immune to crime and violence, and indeed, attempted assassinations.  

In 1868, a crazed Irish nationalist attempted to kill a visiting monarch, Prince Alfred, while he was picnicking at Clontarf. ninety-eight years later, Peter Kocan, a disgruntled and disaffected factory worker, made an attempt on the life of the Federal Opposition Leader, Arthur Augustus Calwell, at Mosman.  

Mosman Town Hall in 1947

On 21 June 1966, he was at Mosman Town Hall to address a meeting opposing the Vietnam War and compulsory conscription. Peter Kocan, then 19-years old, was lurking in the crowd, nursing a sawn-off .22 rifle under his coat. As Calwell left the meeting in his car, Kocan fired the rifle at point-blank range through the passenger-side window. Calwell had partally wound down the window to greet Kocan, thinking him a well-wisher.  

Arthur Augustus Calwell in happier times as Immigration Minister in 1948, greeting the 100,000th British migrant to Australian shores

Calwell later recalled that ‘had the car window been down, as I generally had it down, I would have been killed because the rifle was aimed at my jugular vein when the shot was fired’. He only sustained minor injuries because the bullet splintered on impact with the heavy glass. Shards from the bullet and glass sprayed his face, and the major section of bullet lodged into the left lapel of his jacket.     

Kocan, Australia’s answer to Lee Harvey Oswald, was jailed for life ‘for wounding with intent to murder’. He began a life sentence at Long Bay Gaol but was transferred to Morisset Hospital’s Ward 6 after two prison psychologists declared him criminally insane.  

Kocan would later write to Calwell to express remorse for his actions.   

In 1972 autobiography, Be Just and Fear Not, Calwell recalled that he had ‘replied to the young man’s letter in the most feeling way I could. I said that I accepted his apology, I urged him to forget the incident, and I wished him well. It is my intention when in Sydney to call and visit the young fellow and commiserate with him in the hope that some more warm-hearted sentiments might help him in his mental dilemma’.   

Despite Calwell’s intention to visit Kocan at Morisset Hospital, he died in July 1973 before he had a chance to do so.    

Kocan was released in 1976. During his ten years in institutional care, he had read vociferously and wrote poetry and prose. Two volumes of poetry were published while he was still in hospital, and a few years after his release, he published The Treatment and The Cure, a fictionalised account of his time at Morisset, which won the 1983 NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction.

The coat turned up when Carlo was going through his grandfather’s possessions at the time of death. He decided to keep it.

* * *

Ten years later, Carlo was richer than he would’ve needed to be in a large number of potential lifetimes. The coat provided him anything he liked. The only catch – he had to be wearing the coat. Which was, to say the least, embarrassing.

* * *

But involuntary dancing was not a bad price to pay, all things considered.

* * *

The girl he’d loved since high school was now his wife (he hadn’t worn the coat when dating her), and she was, in general, quite taken by the dancing.

* * *

There was the time Carlo met the President. That went interestingly.

* * *

And there was the time Carlo was almost killed but the assassin’s gun backfired.

* * *

At the age of 50, Carlo had exactly one adult photograph of himself wearing his coat that did not show him dancing.

* * *

Somebody figured it out. One morning, the coat, and only the coat, had disappeared from the cupboard.

* * *

For exactly three seconds, he suspected his wife. But luckily, she was asleep and did not notice this.

* * *

Five years later, there was a new dancing billionaire. Carlo went to shake his hand. Carlo couldn’t tell whether or not the guy was nervous to meet him. Poor kid wouldn’t stop shaking anyway.

“Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death,” Rothschild Adolf Hitler.

“CIA’s report on Israeli terrorism and blackmailing of US officials – is similar to the 19th century anti-Semitic work the Protocols of Zion, ” Mossad chief

According to the Press Trust of India (PTI) – Seven Indian states (Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, Orrisa, Andhra Pradesh, Chatisgarth and Jharkhand) have selected 30 senior officers for a special task force to deal with current Moist groups fighting against New Delhi. These police officers will go through a 30-day training at Ghatsila (Jharkhand). The instructors include Israeli experts (Massad, Sayeret Matkal, Shin Bet, Yamam, etc.)on so-called ’counter-terrorism’. Knowing the past record of these Israeli terrorist agencies in the assassinations of the US, European and Muslim leaders – one would not be wrong to guess that ‘task’ of the 30 Indian officers would also include the target assassination of Moist leadership. Israeli sources have confirmed that the current Israeli ‘assassination list’ includes Iranian president Ahmadinejad, Turkish prime minister Erdogan, Venezuela president Hugo Chavez, Hizb’Allah leaders Sheikh Nasrallah and Hamas’ leader Mishaal. Israel’s has just assassinated one of the founder of Hamas’ miltary wing, IZZ al-Din Qassam Brigades, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. Israel did not evenspared its fellow Jewish US ambassador to Lebanon, John Gunther Dean, during 1978-81 (both parents Jewish), because he was against Israeli attack on Lebanon.

Israel is also pioneered the ’sky terrorism’ – the drone in 1982. Last year when Tehran unveiled its home-made drone – the media claimed that Iranians have stolen their technology. Israel Occupation force (IOF) has used hundred of its drones in Gaza and Lebanon. The US and NATO forces have used Israel-made drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Russia has become the second largest customer after the US of Israeli drones. Turkey is also expected to receive long-delayed four Israeli drones. Israel’s drone manufacturers are in the process of developing more effective drone to be used against Islamic Iran.

Israeli terrorist and their agents in the US, in the past, have been involved in flase-flag operations in Zambia, US Information Library in Cairo, US embassy in Amman, attack on El Al at Orly Airport, Chadian guerrilla operation against Libya’s Gaddafi with the help of Saudi Arabia, Bali bombing, Madrid train bombing, 9/11, London terminal bombing, Meshaal’s poisoning, Sheikh Ysin’s assassination, Mumbai terrorist attacks, Syrian and Iranian threats, etc. etc.

Only if the American can find what Dubya Bush meant when he said: “Your enemies are not surrounding your country. Your enemies are ruling your country”. More history of Israeli terrorism here.

Chennai-based journalist, Trevor Selvam, on January 31, 2010, under the heading India For Selective assassination Of it\’s Own Citizens?, wrote:

“India takes up more than 50% of Israel’s arms exports. It has also been known that India manufactures under license the Russian gas-fired, super sniper semi automatic Dragunov SVD59. Now comes the report of a special training session involving at least 30 top ranking officers who have just completed special training under “foreign” instructors. Nothing works in Indian media lingo than “foreign hand.” But of course, in this case it does not matter, because the foreign hand is only for a good cause! These trainers are not bearded Jihadists or Asiatic desperadoes in the north east with Chinese made grenades.

Selective assassination, use of UAVs, missile attacks on selected homes and sniper fire has been a hallmark of the Israeli Mossad and Defence forces, not only in Gaza and the West Bank, but also in different parts of the world including South America, Iran and Europe. For the past several years it is now well-known that India has entered into very close collaboration with the IDF and over 32 non-disclosure arms and security agreements have been signed with them. The Mossad has titillated gun-and ammo freaks and underhanded counter-insurgency nutjobs with their secretive killing techniques. Assassination and murder that goes undocumented, un-prosecuted and never brought to light, when the Mossad is involved. The CIA fumbles, trips and gets blown up. Not the Mossad. That is why India has chosen them to deploy dirty tricks on India’s citizens….” -( Rehmat’s World)

If the United States of America is so damned big and bad, then why are we so fucking obsessed with the threat (real or imagined) of terrorism?

When were we ever 100 percent safe? Why don’t we fear our cars, since we’re much more likely to die in an automobile accident than we are to die in a terrorist attack? 

Today The Associated Press has not one, but at least two, news items on security for the Super Bowl: “Protecting Against a ‘Lone Wolf’ at the Super Bowl” and “X-mas Bomb Attempt Prods Super Bowl Security Change.”

You know what I’m hoping for?

I’m hoping that members of Code Pink crash the Super Bowl.

They’re good at getting into events — here is a photo of Code Pink members crashing the lie fest — er, testimony — of former Secretary of State Condoleezza “You Know She’s Lying When Her Lips Are Moving” Rice:

– and they never actually harm anyone.

The Code Pink activists are hated because they stand up to The Man, an act that the brainwashed masses deem to be “crazy.” In a democracy, you see, you’re just supposed to just shut the fuck up and let the stupid white men run the show. They know better than you do. I mean, the current state of the nation after the eight years of the Bush-Cheney administration is proof of that. And dissent is uber-unpatriotic, you terrorist-lovin’ pinko. Real patriots march in lockstep with their all-white-male leaders. Every true patriot knows that.

—

I recently wrote:

What the fuck is with the widespread belief that others’ beliefs, no matter how insane and potentially oppressive or even dangerous to others, should be held by all of us as sacrofuckingsanct?

We are allowed to believe whatever we want to believe, but when we believe that others should be oppressed or subjugated, that’s a fucking problem, because our beliefs that others should be oppressed or subjugated often end up in actual oppression or subjugation. Actions often follow beliefs. Hate speech, for instance, often leads to hate crimes. And it’s the hateful beliefs that precede the hate speech.

So just now I read a piece on the murder conviction on Friday of wingnut warrior Scott Roeder, who in May 2009 shot to death — in a church – Dr. George Tiller, who had provided abortions in Kansas.

Here is the money shot of the piece:

During closing arguments Friday, [defense attorney Mark] Rudy urged the jury to reject the murder charge. “No one,” he said, “should be convicted based on his convictions.”

Rudy mentioned leaders who stood up for their beliefs, including Martin Luther King Jr. They were “celebrated individuals (who) stood up and made the world a better place.”

So Scott Roeder was just another Martin Luther King Jr., you see. Except that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down in cold blood, just like Dr. George Tiller was. And Scott Roeder gunned down George Tiller. (Don’t try to understand the “logic”; it will just give you a sick headache.)

Tell you what: After Scott Roeder is gunned down like the dog that he is, then maybe, just maybe, we can start comparing him to someone else who was assassinated. Until then, he isn’t a martyr. He’s an assassin, a murderer. And he was convicted of murder, not convicted of having believed something.

You gotta love his “defense,” though.

I suppose that I could have assassinated “President” George W. Bush and been compared to Martin Luther King Jr. for having done so. After all, if Tiller was responsible for taking innocent lives and therefore his killer was a hero like MLK, well, mass murderer George W. Bush is responsible for having taken many more innocent lives, including the lives of more than 4,300 U.S. troops who have died as a result of his bogus Vietraq War for the war profits of Dick Cheney’s war-profiteering Halliburton and the other war-profiteering subsidiaries of BushCheneyCorp – and the lives of thousands upon thousands of innocent Iraqis, whom he permanently “liberated.”

You know, wingnuts, you really don’t want to go down that path, that one’s beliefs justify killing others. You lost the Civil War to us blue-staters, remember.

—

Speaking of abortion, The Associated Press reports today that New Repugnican Hero Scott Brown is pro-choice:

Republican Sen.-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts says he opposes federal funding for abortions, but thinks women should have the right to choose whether to have one.

Brown tells ABC’s “This Week” that he disagrees with his party’s position that the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion [Roe v. Wade] should be overturned.

Brown says the abortion question is one that’s best handled by a woman, her family and her doctor. He also says more effort needs to go into reducing the number of abortions in the U.S.

Brown has said the GOP shouldn’t take his vote for granted on every issue. He says he’s fiscally conservative but more moderate on social issues….

I’m not sure how much of Brown’s stance is out of political necessity, given that he’s in the blue state of Massachusetts, and how much of it is out of any actual sanity, but I think it’s funny that the wingnuts — who would prefer Brown to say, like wingnut football hero Tim Tebow has said, that he’s happy that his mama didn’t abort him — don’t have Brown on board with them on the issue of women’s right to have control over their own fucking uteri.

Speaking of fiscal conservatives, I’m totally down with fiscal conservatism — the taxpayers’ dollars should be spent judiciously and responsibly – but I have a real fucking problem with the Repugnicans’ philosophy of spending hundreds and hundreds of billions of the taxpayers’ dollars on the war profiteers via bogus wars but refusing to spend the taxpayers’ dollars on the taxpayers. 

Where in the fuck were the cries of “fiscal conservatism!” when the unelected BushCheneyCorp created a record federal budget deficit, with most of that money funneled to the traitors who comprise the military-industrial complex?

Um, yeah.

—

A little more on John Edwards, and then hopefully I’ll never feel compelled to write about the loser again.

While I have no plan to buy former Edwards aide Andrew Young’s tell-all book The Politician, I found this recent reportage from Salon.com’s War Room to be interesting:

Young’s book also elaborates on the now-dominant theme of Edwards as a narcissist on an epic scale. If half of what the book says is true, the candidate’s obsession with his appearance was, if anything, underestimated during the campaign.

Preoccupied with the appearance of his hair and his weight, he scorned state fairgoers as “rednecks” who would try to force feed him. According to Young, Edwards delivered one line that seems a bit too perfect: “I know I’m the people’s senator, but do I have to hang out with them?”

I never bought Edwards’ supposed populism, which is why I never supported him for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Do I blame Edwards for not being thrilled to be hanging out with rednecks? No. I’m not thrilled to hang out with rednecks, either. They tend to be not very bright, not very curious, and they tend to fear — and to oppress and even to aggress upon – those who don’t look, act and believe just like they do.

But the difference between Edwards and me is that I don’t lie about my feelings about rednecks.

—

Finally, I like this line in an AlterNet piece about why the U.S. Supreme Court fucked up when the five wingnuts on it ruled that corporations have the First Amendment right to spend an unlimited amount of money on political ads: “Simply put: money is not speech [and] corporations are not people.”

Yup. I especially believe the latter part: corporations are not people.

One certainly could argue that money is needed to disseminate one’s message, but the First Amendment reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Nothing in there about corporations having the same rights as do individual people — nothing about corporations in there at all — and the courts have ruled consistently that what appear (correctly or incorrectly) to be restraints on free speech are constitutional if they are content neutral.

Restraining corporate influence on the national political dialogue is not about suppressing individuals’ free speech; to the contrary, it’s about ensuring that the individual’s voice is not completely drowned out in the national dialogue by Big Money.

To allow that to happen would be to hasten the conversion of our democracy into a complete corporatocracy, which has been going on for some decades now.

No one who understands and cares about our democracy would be OK with its hostile takeover by the corporations, which represent the largest threat to our democracy, by far.

And people think I’m crazy for suggesting that Obama is as bad as Bush: Marcy flags something that the Washington Post’s Dana Priest wrote down but apparently failed to grasp the significance of: “Somewhere there’s a list of Americans who, the President has determined, can be killed [by their own government] with no due process.” OK, I’ll say it: Impeach him. I’m dead serious. Because if what Priest reports is true, the president has illegally and extraconstitutionally conspired to commit murder.

Think George W. Bush will watch on teevee?: Britain’s former prime minister Tony Blair testifies Friday in the inquiry into that country’s decision to join the war in Iraq. Even if he escapes indictment — and that is far from certain — Blair’s place in British history appears sure to fall into the Brit equivalent of Warren Harding country.

Cue ominous music: The SEC voted 4-1 today to suspend automatic redemptions from money-market funds. People who value these investments for their liquidity now have no reason to value them. Let the stampede begin. What’s the larger meaning? I have no idea, but I’m about 98% sure it ain’t good.

The banksters screw us again: Citi temporarily tamped down some of the criticism of its big bonuses by announcing that every part of anyone’s bonus over $100,000 would be paid in stock, not cash. The idea is, you tie employees in to the company’s goal of long-term growth and profitability. Which would be great if the stock weren’t redeemable for a couple or three years. But this stock? Will be redeemable in April. As stock bonuses go, that’s practically cash.

How the banksters screwed us the first time: The so-called “Schedule A,” the list of crap mortgage-backed securities that the New York Fed took off AIG’s hands at 100 cents on the dollar when they were actually worth around half that, has finally been made public. Not sure exactly what it will mean, but inasmuch as the NYFRB tried to keep this list secret until 2018, you can be reasonably sure it’s nothing good.

Smoking gun: Goldman Sachs could and should have had to eat some of its bad investments in 2008, but the New York Fed let it off the hook, documents show. That’s the same New York Fed then run by our current SecTreas, who REALLY needs to be returned to the private sector posthaste. Oh, wait: He has been a “public servant” his whole life. Well, that’s OK. After what he appears to have done for Goldman, they should pay him a princely sum for life and not even require him to show up for work. Then they’d have a slight taste of how we taxpayers feel, except for the part where they NEVER ACTUALLY DID ANYTHING FOR US, not that I am bitter.

Cops bumping into each other: Joining the House Oversight Committee in looking into the New York Fed’s bailout of Goldman Sachs and AIG is Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, better known as the bank bailout program, who testified today before Congress.

Oh, and lookee what Mr. Barofsky had to say: “According to these [Federal Reserve Bank of New York] executives, then-President [Tim] Geithner ‘acquiesced’ to the executive’s proposal. When asked by [Barofsky's office]  if the executives felt they had received their ‘marching orders’ from then-FRBNY President Geithner to pay the counterparties par [instead of the roughly 48 cents on the dollar they actually were worth], one FRBNY official responded ‘yes, absolutely.’” But … but … Geithner and the White House both say Geithner wasn’t involved in the decision to screw taxpayers by paying AIG customers (including Goldman Sachs) more than they should have. So somebody’s lying. And Barofsky’s the one under oath.

And the hits just keep on coming: A report from Rep. Darrell Issa, ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee, nails Tim Geithner’s butt to the wall.

Memo to commenters on this article: Genocide is not a contest. There is no prize.

If Steven Pearlstein were president, he’d say the state of the union sucks.

Mixed blessing: In his article “Appalled in Greenwich Connecticut [sic],” downloadable (.pdf) from his site StumblingonTruth.com, Clifford Asness of AQR Capital Management, whom I have not read before, combines grossly unfortunate metaphor (“Unfortunately for this President, he will, I hope, find the financial community not cowering from his Cossacks on a shtetl in the Pale of Settlement (Greenwich, CT), but meeting his accusations with logic and patriotism.”) with both an entitlement mentality AND common sense (“So, how do you fix too-big-to-fail? Well, this is complicated, give me a moment. I got it. You let them fail.”). For a quant, he manipulates words real purty. I may return.

The problem with cutting Medicare and Medicaid: Abe Sauer explains.

Tax the rich! Tax the rich! Oregon’s doing it. Sort of. A little. For the first time in 80 years. But the media is all Scott “Our Next President” Brown, so if you don’t hear about this, that’s why.

Wrong AND lame: President Obama’s proposed 3-year freeze on domestic discretionary spending is not only exactly not what the economy needs in a time of depressed consumer demand, it’s also almost meaningless in its effects on the budget deficit, given that it doesn’t affect big-ticket items like defense, wars, interest on the national debt or entitlements. It’s one more example of trying to appear to people who believe you incapable of doing the right thing that you’re doing the right thing. You will never win those people over, so you ought to just go ahead and do the right thing. Simpler. More effective. Pisses off the people who are wrong. Everyone’s a winner.

Rhodes Scholar tackles spending freeze, president loses.

Related: A roundup of amusing reactions to the quote freeze unquote.

And if you want to look for budget savings, here’s a suggestion. Even George W. Bush’s last Defense Secretary thinks we’re spending too much on defense, and spending it the wrong way. Observes Spencer Ackerman, who covers this stuff for a living, “Everyone in Washington who studies the Pentagon budget quickly finds gobs and gobs of wasteful spending. Not some people. Not dirty hippies. Every. Single. Defense. Analyst.”

Can we like ACORN again? Reminder: O’Keefe’s videotapes were doctored. And August J. Pollak’s commentary on the case is short enough and good enough for you to hie thee hence and read it in its entirety. Go on. I’ll wait.

(pause)

Oh, good, you’re back. Moving on, then …

Conflict of interest: Tyler Durden points out reason to believe that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has a quite personal reason for wanting to see Bumbling Ben Bernanke reconfirmed as Fed chairman as early as Thursday.

Whoops! Not so fast, there, Fast Harry: Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., claims to have documents showing that Bernanke overruled his advisers in approving the AIG bailout. And here we thought Harry Reid was just venal. Y’know, nothing is becoming Jim Bunning’s Senate career like his leaving of it. Maybe the old guy is going senile, but he’s actually, at long last, acting in the public interest here. Or maybe he just hates Democrats. Either works for me.

Hard cases make bad law, and this hard case has led a judge to make some awful case law.

You might want to put down the knife, Ms. Quinn, because the Secret Service does NOT mess around: Obama has been advised to make sure the bunny is secure. Commenter El Cid at Balloon Juice adds, “I think it’s kind of funny that Sally Quinn goes to the trouble of asking her readers to ‘indulge [her] for a moment’, as if that woman spends the tiniest femtosecond of her life not being indulged.” And this would be funny if every other Washington journalist weren’t just like her.

The teabaggers are “good Republicans even if they don’t know it.” That’s about the best description I’ve seen.

Speaking of good Republicans, the ones doing PR for the party are just top-notch: The GOP response to the State of the Union tonight was given in — I am not making this up — the hall where Jefferson Davis was inaugurated.

The public option: C’est popular. Corporations: pas tellement: In a Research 2000 poll in 10 swing congressional districts whose seats are currently held by Democrats, a majority of Republicans favor a public option, and a plurality of Republicans, 43%, say Democrats need to do more to fight big corporations.  In the single N.C. district polled, Larry Kissell’s NC-08, voters overall favor a public option by 73% to 16%, with 11% undecided, and a 59% majority of voters, the biggest majority of any of the 10 districts, said Democrats need to do more to fight big corporations. It’d be interesting to see the results if the vague “big corporations” was changed to “banks” or “health-insurance companies” or both.

Against it for all the wrong reasons: Polling ace Nate Silver points out that part of the reason health-care reform isn’t polling as well as its supporters wish is that sizable chunks of the population believe (bad) things about the bill that are objectively untrue.

Why wouldn’t a combination of high-deductible health-insurance plans and Health Savings Accounts fix the problem? That’s pretty much the question one of my cousins asked me in an e-mail the other day. Well, Nancy, here’s your answer.

It would be funny if these people didn’t effectively control the entire U.S. school textbook market: The Texas Board of Education [sic] bans Bill Martin Jr.’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? from its third-grade reading list after confusing its author with that of the book Ethical Marxism.

Afghanistan Fail: The guy who once held Stanley McChrystal’s job running the U.S. military in Afghanistan and is now ambassador to Afghanistan says McChrystal’s anti-insurgency effort in Afghanistan is doomed.

Good news, for a change, for vets: Iraq and Afghanistan vets suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder but denied monthly disability benefits from the VA can join a class-action lawsuit to get their disability ratings increased to the level required by law, which will make them eligible for benefits. The relevant law was quite clear on what disability rating vets with PTSD are supposed to be assigned, so the fact that someone even had to sue over the issue is a disgrace and an outrage.

CBS: Morons: They won’t let people run factual advertisements about George W. Bush’s war crimes, but they’ll let Christianist wingnuts Focus on the Family run a forced-pregnancy ad during the Super Bowl. I think maybe I’ll just skip the game, then — all the best parts (i.e., the other commercials) will be on YouTube next day anyway. Also, I hope all the fans of Tim Tebow, who’ll star in the commercial, read this. The money quote comes from “an NFC South talent evaluator” who is most likely with the Bucs, since the Saints and Falcons are fixed for starting QBs and the Panthers have neither the money nor the draft pick to go after a potential first-round QB.

Don’t don’t-ask-don’t-tell: That well known military-hater, retired Gen. John Shalikashvili, who implemented “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says it’s time to repeal the military’s ban on openly gay people. I’d say that time actually was 1775, but I’m happy to welcome J-Shal to the bandwagon.

The lessons of Stuyvesant Town: But by all means, let’s re-confirm Ben Bernanke. Jesus wept.

Rush Limbaugh confesses that he AND the world would be better off if he killed himself: Only on The Onion, unfortunately.

Why Howard Zinn and not Rush Limbaugh?: Zinn, who came up with the radical idea that the history of a democracy shouldn’t be by and for aristocrats only, is dead at 87.

Would it be irresponsible to speculate that since he’s getting a divorce, Karl Rove is now free to woo and wed Jeff Gannon? It would be irresponsible not to.

OK, this is just weird:

You’re looking at the performance of Apple stock earlier today. That big dip came right around the announcement of the iPad. I’m not sure what it means, but I’m pretty sure it ain’t what the Apple board expected.

Best. Apple. Humor. Ever.: The Wikipedia Entry for the iPad (until today): “iPad was a prototype for a feminine hygiene product that purported to digitize a woman’s menstruation cycle and store it on a password-protected Web server.^[1]“ More iPad humor here, but guys may want to give it a miss.

Keith Richards, sober? Because he was so upset by how hard Ron Wood fell off the wagon? I think The Awl says it all: “If Keith Richards stops drinking because he thinks you have a problem, well, you have a problem.”

This cannot possibly end well: George Lucas is producing a computer-animated musical.

And you thought Blog on the Run was minor-league: I’ll have you know this blog has just 35 fewer paying customers than Newsday.com, so there. And that’s after spending $4 million less on my site design than Newsday spent on theirs!

And you thought my carpal-tunnel syndrome happened because I type a lot.

How Japan intends to win the World Cup (this one goes out to my friend Beau):

(Note that the numbers on the radar are kph, not mph.)

And, finally, things journalists should know about polls: