The First Step

From the premier episode of The Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin's latest attempt to remind us of the true greatness of what (and who) we once were; and to get us to think about how we can be great again.



As usual tho', reading the comments is depressing.

The Old Made New Again

Reading thru this today from The ArchDruid, via The Agonist:
(while trying to find a new way of saying "forget your history and you'll have to relive it")

The first of these shifts was the Great Depression or, more precisely, the feckless response of both American mainstream political parties to the economic collapse that followed the 1929 stock market crash. In the crucial first years after the crash, Democrats and Republicans alike embraced exactly the same policies they are embracing in today’s economic troubles, with exactly the same lack of success, and showed exactly the same unwillingness to abandon failed policies in the face of economic disaster. Then as now, the federal government launched a program to bail out big banks and corporations—it was called the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in those days—and pumped dizzying amounts of money into the upper end of the economy in the belief, real or feigned, that the money would work its way down the pyramid, which of course it didn’t do. Then as now, politicians used the shibboleth of a balanced budget to demand austerity for everybody but the rich, and cut exactly those programs which could have helped families caught by hard times. Then as now, things got worse while the media insisted that they were getting better, and the mounting evidence that policies weren’t working was treated as proof that the same policies had to be pursued even more forcefully.

And then I had to go reread the Kipling piece:

The White Man's Burden --Rudyard Kipling, 1899

Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

Take up the White Man's burden--
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper--
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.

Take up the White Man's burden--
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"

Take up the White Man's burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.

Take up the White Man's burden--
Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!

Remember

War Tech

(hat tip = JG)
From Wired Magazine:

The U.S. military has been after self-guided bullets for years. Now, government researchers have finally made it happen: a bullet that can navigate itself a full mile before successfully nailing its target.

Got me to thinking - sometimes dangerous, always obsessive - and just a few quick Googlies later:

That Pussy, Obama

He's just a typical Librul wuss - always walkin' around all timid and uncomfortable when it comes to knockin' shit over with his dick.  Except when you look at his actual record of  fuckin' up the bad guys.

From AP/WaPo, via Balloon Juice:
(even DumFux News has this at the top of their page this morning)

Chickens Come Home To Roost

Gee - it's just like 1970 again.  The cops are not your friends...

(hat tip = The Agonist)

From care2 make a difference:

Sometime between the time he was arrested on March 27, 2009 around 2:00 p.m., and March 31 at 1:23 p.m. when he was pronounced dead, Christie had been sprayed with ten blasts of pepper spray, also known as OC (Oleo-resin Capsicum), which is a derivative of cayenne pepper.

  ...and the world is a ghetto.

The Late Great US of A

From a story in the LA Times:

The would-be CIA director tells the Senate Intelligence Committee that the U.S. should consider a policy for using special interrogation techniques when information is needed right away to save lives. John McCain, a fellow opponent of recent 'enhanced' methods, agrees.

Quick aside: David Patraeus was nicknamed Peaches in high school - and never mind how I know that.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure this is what that famous Slippery Slope actually looks like.

First, tho', I think it's important to remember that when these guys talk about this stuff in public, they're not talking about everything they know about it.  There's always something they're not telling us  - either because it really is justifiably secret, or because it would make them look like assholes &/or idiots.  Getting past the obstacle of Information asymmetry is what journalism is supposed to be all about - and what we have to remember about the Press Poodles is that they're show dogs, not workin' dogs.

So, now what're we supposed to get outa this little dog-and-pony show?

Main Point: We're the good guys, so of course, we don't torture people.  But if you fuck with us, we'll rip off your eyelids and make you watch as we feed 'em to the dogs.

Over time, this will evolve.  Before too long, "for the sake of public safety" will be used to justify harsh treatment of anybody in custody; and eventually, detention and harsh treatment will not be limited to "the terrorists".  Remember that it's already been established in the law that the president can point at anybody, and calling that person an enemy combatant, make that person disappear.  Don't even try to suggest that it couldn't or won't happen here because America is exceptional (and therefore superior).  It will happen here because now it can happen here.  We removed all the safeguards that always worked to keep it from happening.

Generally, people don't gravitate to the centers of power because they think it'll be fun to work 18 hours a day for crappy wages "in service to the people".  There are some of those of course, but the ladder climbers are the same people you find in any other line of work.  They're hyper-competitive and coldly ambitious, and they're not there seeking the noble fulfillment of doing well by doing good.  They want the power for its own sake.