Josh Marshall on Cheney: exactly right

Good Riddance, saith Josh.

Greenwald on Cheney's latest claims that the Congress was consulted and uniformly approved illegal warrantless surveillance. Tiring, but necessary reading, especially since it's hard to credit much this utterly despicable man says. It's easy to just say, let's put this behind us, but we owe to the future making sure: (a) the new administration understands that this unconstitutional illegal spying on Americans must stop, and (b) that it doesn't happen again. And that means prosecution, and accountability, for past law-breaking.

The Day the Earth Stood Still: high concept sci-fi movie

No attempt at a proper movie review, but I'd advise folks who at least tolerate science fiction to go see The Day the Earth Stood Still. Some of the criticism of it is misplaced, I think. It's high concept, and takes the original only as a starting point. I commented to my companion afterwards, "this is the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind should have been."

Still cutting Barack slack

A bit out of context perhaps. This is the end of an exchange I was having about l'affaire Warren. (See here).

This one seems to have legs, as they say in the news biz. I'm pretty sure the Obama people aren't entirely deaf to the criticism. They won't undo this, because it would be seen as a gaffe, but maybe they'll learn from it.

I am still cutting Barack a lot of slack. The huge stinking pile of poo that is landing on his desk; certainly the most complicated, if not actually the most threatening, set of problems to face an incoming prez in history; is just so dreadful that we have to hang with this guy and try to help him start on a road to recovery. Even if he does say and do some things that are, to say the least, troubling.

Cheney bucking for pardon? Nah.

Michael Latt in HuffPo is claiming that Cheney is trying to force Bush's hand in his admission in an interview with Jonathan Karl of ABC that he approved waterboarding:

There are those who see the vice president's admission as part of a strategy to force the president to pardon him and all those named in the Senate Report: Rumsfeld, Meyers, and Rice. If Bush doesn't pardon them, they will certainly be pursued by those in the new administration who will not let-bygones-be-bygone.

Since Bush has been famously reticent to grant pardons both as governor and president, then Cheney's ABC interview with Jonathan Karl is a way of provoking Bush to act while he still can. If Cheney is pardoned then he'll have it both ways: maintaining that what was done was legal and being protected from prosecution.

I don't buy it. Cheney's a true-believer, who cannot conceive that he needs to be pardoned for anything. Also, a pardon is excuse from a particular crime, and its acceptance is legally considered an admission of guilt. Somehow I just can't see either Bush or Cheney going this route.

Auto bridge loan

I already strongly expressed my view that of all the various "bailouts," doing something to make sure that the U.S. automakers don't just collapse is critically important. The plan announced by Pres. Bush this morning no doubt has many flaws, not least of which is that by all accounts it is maddeningly vague and will no doubt be interpreted to effectively prevent control and direction from the public sector, which it seems to me is essential right now to mandate major changes in direction. But at least it kicks the can down the road so that the Obama administration can do whatever it takes to ensure the long term survival of an auto industry in this country. To my way of thinking, this is of vital, actually strategic importance, and is more important than three quarters of the Pentagon budget to the security of our country.

Franken v. Coleman down to the wire • Franken favored

TPM is reporting that ongoing counting now has Franken down by only 5 votes, with expectation that if this trend isn't reversed, he will pull ahead in counting tomorrow and likely win. Of course, there will probably be litigation afterwards, but if the Elections Canvassing Board declares Franken the winner, as now, for the first time, seems likely, the Senate will seat him. I'm not sure about the historical precedents, but I gather that once that happens, it's extremely likely that whoever is seated by the Senate will serve out the term.

Update: The Minneapolis Star-Tribune now (12/19 11:00 PST) has Franken ahead by 188 266, and projects he will remain ahead, by 78 75, when all challenges are resolved.

If this proves true, or even if Coleman pulls it out, it will be remarkable that a Senate election where nearly four million votes were cast will apparently be decided by less than 100 votes.

War Crimes Prosecutions essential

This is an important post by Glenn Grennwald. I think he makes the point very well that the demand for war crimes prosecution isn't coming from some shrill vindictive minority, but is the reasoned position of millions of people who believe strongly in the rule of law, and in the principle that prosecution of official crime is the only effective deterrent.

See TPM today, too, for a video interview snippet with Center for Constitutional Rights president Michael Ratner, explaining exactly this.

Chuck Todd to White House beat

I guess we won't be seeing Chuck Todd so often on Keith Olbermann's Countdown on MSNBC, now that NBC has announced he's being slotted to replace David Gregory as White House correspondent.

Todd is an analyst, a skill he won't be able to display quite as much in this new job, but he is definitely one of the best reporters of his cohort (more on point and incisive than Gregory, certainly).

A sober perspective from a financial professional

My friend who made his career understanding markets writes:

...from my perspective, the current financial crisis is getting worse, not
better. The FEDS continue to pursue a policy of fixing the leak by adding
more water. They think that if they can fill up the pond faster than it is
draining it will somehow repair itself. Clearly a mistaken perception.

The corporate debt market, and now the markets for state bonds, are
completely dysfunctional. Next quarter I fear we will see bankruptcies
mushroom. I don't see the FEDS doing things that will encourage investors
to take on corporate obligations. And without these funds available,
America cannot finance itself.

Unfortunately, I can't find any reason to disagree with any of this.

Schütz: Geistliche Chormusik, 1648

I've not mentioned music much on this blog, which has been primarily devoted to politics. As part of an occasional foray into other topics, I introduce my few (or is it zero?) readers to my eccentric musical tastes. I tend to look askance at conventional popular music. I like a lot of it, especially from before about 1950, but it just isn't interesting enough to me to spend time with. Some so-called "World Music" and Jazz (especially with piano) is interesting, but for me, the mainstream of Western music is my main bread and butter, starting in the early Renaissance and running up to, say Bartok. I'd mention a certain disdain for the later Romantics (except Wagner and Mahler), and an emphasis, compared to most Classical music aficionados, on music before 1750.

You may have noted the famous portrait of the very serious 17th century composer Heinrich Schütz on the sidebar. Schütz was tremendously gifted, but all of his instrumental, and most of his other secular music, was lost, so we have only his formal vocal church music to go on. He was, I think unquestionably, the most talented German composer of his century, and probably second only to Monteverdi in Europe of the time (Monteverdi was about 20 years older). Oddly, although he lived until just over a decade before Bach's birth despite being almost exactly 100 years older, Schütz had next to no influence on Bach.*

I recently bought a fairly new recording of the Geistliche Chormusik of 1648, one of Schütz's most spare and serious sets of choral compositions, performed by Hans-Christoph Rademann, cond; Dresdner Kammerchor; & Cappella Sagittariana [CARUS 83232, 2 CDs, about $36]. A 1962 recording by Mauersberger is a bit too stolid for my taste, and I believe it's out of print. There are quite a few recordings of just some of the motets, but few complete sets.

There was a pretty decent 1970s era recording made (still available last I checked), by the Westfälische Kantorei under Wilhelm Ehmann. Some of these suffer from a thick texture owing to Ehmann's theory that all the vocal parts were to be doubled by instruments (there are no independent instrumental parts in these conservative, even for their time, motets). Rademann's approach, and the recording itself, are clearer and preferable, except for one or two of the motets, where his tempos seem a bit too fast to me.

See this for a review, mentioning several recordings, by J.F. Weber in Fanfare.
................
*(Bach was more influenced by lesser lights like his own uncle, Johann Christoph Bach, and Buxtehude and Pachelbel. Compare Bach's Motets, which are very conservative compositions for his time, to the Geistliche Chormusik, to hear the point).

William Morris: News from Nowhere

At a friend's recommendation, I've been reading News from Nowhere (1890) by the artist, printer, and writer William Morris. An explicitly socialist utopian novel, it's no masterpiece, but it has its charms. Morris seems delightfully naive by today's sensibilities, but of course, we have the hideous events of the 20th century to reflect upon.

Blogs and Blogging

If you spend a few moments clicking on "next blog" on Google-blogger blogs (such as this one), you will be struck, as I was, by a couple of characteristics:

• Fewer than half seem to be North American. A large percentage are Brazilian. Many are Asian.
• By far most of them are obscure, narrowly directed to a tiny specialized audience, or just personal small talk, of no interest to anyone who doesn't know the blogger.

Fire Blackwater?

TPM reports that a State Dept. panel is recommending dropping Blackwater as the main provider of security for State Dept. personnel in Iraq. The decision will be left to the Obama administration, naturally.

This is an example of too little, too late. It's clear that there has been massive fraud and abuse by private contractors in Iraq, and that the whole scheme of privatizing services that once were, and should again be either handled by uniformed military or by civilian government employees, needs to be completely overhauled. In most cases, private contractors should be excluded entirely. Certainly those whose track records have been deplorable (and that's most of them), should be fired and excluded from eligibility for a good long time.

Of course, in conjunction with a top to bottom overhaul of American interventionist foreign policy all around, which I hope the Obama administration seriously pursues, we can hope that the need for private contractors in these kinds of functions will drop to practically zero in the fairly near future regardless.

Guest Post by Nancy S.: Bush and Paulson Have It Their Way While America Reels

Did you know that while they had the Bailout Bill in signing, Bush and Paulson changed one tiny line to read " No special compensation or bonuses will be given to any executives of companies from whom Treasury buys toxic assets" So I guess we know why Paulson changed his mind about buying toxic assets. Now all the financial execs can collect all their bonuses etc on our billions.

This is the real legacy of the Bush administration. He has pretty much managed to transfer all the wealth and potential wealth of our democracy to his oligarchic comrades and war mongering cronies also known as his base. The military industrial congressional complex is doing just fine while our neighbors lose their homes and jobs. And the benefits to Wall Street are unspeakable. Bush did his job perfectly and pulled the biggest heist perhaps in world history to date from the citizens of the country he promised to protect. War on Terror 0 War on Citizenry 10. The real terror is the capture of so much capital in so few hands.

War Criminal Watch: Cheney continues to condone torture

I didn't see the entire Cheney interview with Jonathan Karl of ABC news, but here's a telling excerpt:

KARL: And on KSM [Khalid Sheikh Mohammad], one of those tactics, of course, widely reported, was waterboarding. And that seems to be a tactic we no longer use. Even that you think was appropriate?
CHENEY: I do.

Waterboarding, everywhere and always in modern times, except in Bush-era America, has been and is universally recognized by civilized nations as illegal torture. Even Bush ordered it ceased in 2007.

From the blog War Crimes, discussing the same interview:

When asked about the legality of harsh interrogation tactics conducted by CIA officers, and others, Cheney maintained water-boarding was not categorically defined as torture.

“I think those who allege that we’ve been involved in torture, or that somehow we violated the Constitution or laws with the terrorist surveillance program, simply don’t know what they’re talking about,” the vice president said.

In the same interview, Cheney unequivocally acknowledged having approved this treatment, specifically. What more do you need to know? I think history's conclusion will be inescapable: our vice-president is a war criminal, and if we didn't already have enough evidence, we now have his direct admissions to prove it.

To my mind, it's long past time to stop coddling and deferring to people who by their own admission have committed acts that can only be described by reasonable people as war crimes. Other political leaders should openly condemn these acts, and shun this despicable man overtly, until such time as an appropriate tribunal can investigate and prosecute him.

As for the notion that important information was gained through torture, this is just plain nonsense. Every responsible interrogator, in the U.S. military and outside of it, will say that coercive interrogation techniques do not work. They yield almost entirely incorrect and useless information (as Jane Mayer documents in The Dark Side with specific reference to KSM). Moreover, the use of these techniques reduces the ability of interrogators to obtain useful information, including from other prisoners as the reputation of the U.S. for torturing detainees spreads among the populations from which the detainees come. Of course, the moral standing of the United States has also been damaged so badly that it will take a very, very long time to repair, thanks to Mr. Cheney and his cohorts who authorized and condoned torture.

Another detriment to the torture of people like KSM in particular is that, once we finally abandon the unconstitutional and illegal detention of detainees without trial, or trial of them in kangaroo courts, in places like Guantánamo, the fact that these individuals were tortured will make it virtually impossible to convict them of their actual crimes in legitimate courts. This unholy mess is directly attributable to the banal evil and stupidity of people like Addington and Cheney.

In reality, when the law has been followed in the past, as in the Ramzi Yousef case, it has proven relatively straightforward to bring successful prosecutions of terrorists in the legitimate criminal justice system. But once the evidence is tainted by torture, it will be all but impossible.
 

Fred Armisen: bad taste

I'm usually pretty liberal about political humor, and I didn't see the original show, but from what I saw of Fred Armisen's evisceration of Gov. David Paterson on SNL, which ridiculed blindness and disabilities in general, it was in just plain execrable taste, and an apology is in order.

Guest Post by Nancy S.: Automaker Industrial complex?

I am honored to be able to post on Gyro, my brother's blog. I have many opinions, some insights and commentary about the American scene as reported to me on Link TV, Free Speech TV, CNBC, Fox News, MSNBC and C-Span and various books and blogs.

Remember the military industrial congressional complex. How come defense contractors don't need bailouts...maybe because they already get such a gigantic chunk of the Pentagon's $800B budget every year? I don't know for sure...but maybe Congress could think about giving the automakers a budget like that and then we can buy our cars through our Senators. Of course they would have to have cute cars, sleek cars, roomy cars etc. The Car Czar could do some market research and get back to us.

Avalokiteshvara, the Treasury of

Unobservable Compassion

Picture of a Bodhisattva

I put a picture of Bodhisattva Langri Tangpa, the author of Training the Mind in Eight Verses, one of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism's chief lojong ("mind-training") root texts, on the masthead to the left. This is not intended to imply that anything posted on this blog is Dharma, or even reflective of awareness of Buddhadharma... only to remind me, and anyone else, to try to refrain from harming others, even as we express our oh-so-important opinions.

Keep Robert Rubin away from decision making of any kind

I should think that this, from Frank Rich's column in yesterday's Times, would be sufficient reason for Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin to be permanently excluded from consideration for any government post, not to mention any significant management post anywhere:

...if all bubbles and panics are alike, this one, the worst since the Great Depression, also carried the DNA of our own time. Enron had been a Citigroup client. In a now-forgotten footnote to that scandal, Rubin was discovered to have made a phone call to a former colleague in the Treasury Department to float the idea of asking credit-rating agencies to delay downgrading Enron’s debt. This inappropriate lobbying never went anywhere, but Rubin neither apologized nor learned any lessons. “I can see why that call might be questioned,” he wrote in his 2003 memoir, “but I would make it again.” He would say the same this year about his performance at Citigroup during its collapse.