Column for Tuesday, August 7

Here is today’s column.

PERVERTED JUSTICE
The Criminalization of Thought
NEW YORK–“This is not a crime about thought,” says the assistant U.S. attorney. Then what is it?
Mahmud Faruq Brent, a 30-year-old D.C. taxi driver, is about to spend the next 15 years behind bars for “conspiring to support a terrorist organization.” No one, not even prosecutors, believes that the Ohio-born Brent planned to attack the United States. Brent was convicted of supporting Lakshar-e-Taiba, an Islamist group in Pakistan, and of attending one of its training camps.
“This defendant took action and he offered himself to a terrorist organization,” explains the prosecutor. But all the “action” took place in the would-be jihadi’s brain. There was no terrorist act. There was no crime.
Based in Pakistan, Lakshar-e-Taiba has attacked India, which it seeks to drive out of Kashmir. It has also carried out terrorist acts in Pakistan as part of its campaign to oust the military junta of General Pervez Musharraf. It’s easy to see why Musharraf is afraid of the group. One could understand why the U.S., as Musharraf’s ally, might honor Pakistan’s request to extradite one of its members. But Lakshar-e-Taiba has never attacked a target in the United States, the West–anywhere outside the Asian subcontinent. Why are American taxpayers footing the bill to lock this man up for 15 years?
Abdulrahman Farhane, a Brooklyn bookstore owner accused with Mahmud Brent of supporting the Pakistani group Lakshar-e-Taiba, received 13 years in federal prison. Two others charged in the case are awaiting sentencing.
As the government breaks up one alleged “plot” after another (Columbine-type massacre narrowly avoided as high school kid nabbed with “hit list” of fellow students! Crazy Muslim radicals caught with camera full of digital photos of tourist attractions!) it’s easy to see that anyone–yes, even you–can get swept up by hysterical grand inquisitors wielding dubious legal logic as naïve journalists dutifully report the latest victory against imminent danger.
“The government is arresting individuals on terrorism charges based on what individuals have said or thought–not on actual, concrete plans,” editorialized the Daytona Beach News-Journal- about Hamid Hayat, one of countless Muslims nabbed after 9/11 for “providing material support or resources to terrorists.” The feds “only proved that he did things that sometimes precede acts of terrorism. It was pre-emptive justice, but was also speculative justice.”
Most people have indulged in theoretical discussions about how to rob a bank or even how to get away with murder. They obviously don’t intend to carry out their “plots.” Yet any of us could fall victim to the recent tendency to equate crimes of intent to crimes of action.
Jack McClellan, 45, is a self-described pedophile who runs a blog that advocates sex with children. “If you look at things he has posted, he clearly is a pedophile,” says Lt. Thomas Sirkel of the Sheriff’s Department in Los Angeles, where McClellan lives. As far as we know, however, he has never acted on it. His record is clean.
Local mothers are plotting–er, organizing–to “to push lawmakers in Sacramento to legislate Mr. McClellan out of business,” reports The New York Times. “Just the idea that this person could get away with what he was doing and no one could press charges has made me angry,” Jane Thompson of East Los Angeles told the paper. Of course, what really angers her is that he’s getting away with what he’s thinking.
I don’t blame her. But McClellan hasn’t done anything. Do we really want to live in a culture that penalizes violent and impure thoughts?
Thoughtcrime pours big bucks into CBS Television, broadcaster of the take-a-bath-after-viewing program “To Catch a Predator.” No one cares about entrapped suckers like the guy “in a SpongeBob SquarePants jacket, armed with a bottle of K-Y Jelly.” Like dozens of other would-be pervs, the 21-year-old man thinks he’s going to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex, only to find Dateline’s Chris Hansen and a passel of cops waiting to arrest him.
Run your neighborhood through your state’s Megan’s Law database and you’ll likely conclude that sex offenders are all over the place. One is too many, but the problem isn’t as widespread as we’ve been led to believe. Many of the registrants are statutory rapists like the 17-year-old Georgia boy doing hard time for consensual sex with a 15-year-old girl.
“Anti-predator stings involving decoys may actually outnumber crimes involving real victims,” reports Rolling Stone. “To Catch a Predator” claims there are 50,000 child molesters online. But “a study conducted by the University of New Hampshire estimated that there were fewer than 2900 arrests for online sexual offenses against minors in a single year. What’s more, only 1152 involved victims who were approached by strangers on the Internet–and more than half this number were actually cops posing as kids.”
In other words, most men who fantasize about sex with children don’t actually do it. Judeo-Christian tradition rewards those who deny temptation; we throw them in jail. Perverted Justice, the group that trolls chat rooms to set up stings for “To Catch a Predator,” has a fitting name.
Ari Fleischer warned us to watch what we say. Now we’d better watch what we think.
COPYRIGHT 2007 TED RALL

Centiheads

While researching a cartoon I encountered the dorkiest Internet discussion thread ever. It’s actually quite sweet, but more than that it’s…just dorky.

A classic post:

Caco is right, its a good idea to know locals who are interested in pedes, as Im highly interested, we can all share knowledge together and hopefully one day have pedes that we can breed together, and catch some pedes.

But, even in the world of centiheads, there’s gotta be a wiseass who derails the discussion with talk of millipedes:

I’m personally more into millipedes, and I’ve just been starting to find some nice ones after the weeks of rain. I just found a huge soil millipede (sorry for the lack of a more scientific name) the other day, and it seems like there are tiny red centipedes under every log. Hopefully this will be a good spring for collecting.

All this “centihead” talk got me thinking about the whole -“head” suffix to address a hobby. State Route 114 outside Sag Harbor NY has its highway cleaning sponsored by the “Metro Parrothead Club,” which I believe is a club for Jimmy Buffett fans. Why aren’t people into George Bush called Bushheads? What about people into heads–would they be headheads?

Where did the “-head” suffix to indicate interest or fandom originate? William Safire, call your office.

Privatizing the Bridges
posted by TheDon

Atlanta hate-yakker, Neal Boortz, has another in a seemingly endless series of brilliant ideas coming from the E. coli Republicans and their Libertarian enablers . Let’s privatize all the bridges and roads! No more tax money needed for building roads and bridges! No more tax money for maintenance! Yeah!

Here’s a concept that Congress hasn’t though of … if there is a problem with infrastructure, why not let the private sector fix it! Or maybe Congress did think about that response but refuses to ignore it, because it would take away their power. That’s probably a more likely scenario.

The costs of overhauling US infrastructure are astronomical. Texas estimates having to spend $100 billion just to keep up with growth, mush less maintain existing roads. And Oregon estimates $1.3 billion a year. Each state has similarly startling figures.
In Indiana governor Mitch Daniels decided that he wasn’t going to sit around and wait for federal subsidies or increase taxes on his constituents. Needing a quick $3 billion for his state’s transportation needs, he decided to auction off the rights to the Indiana Toll Road. It’s so very simple. Auction off the rights to the road and, in essence, you have the private sector paying .. big bucks .. for the right to collect tolls on those roads … or bridges. Right now 23 states currently have laws to allow public-private deals of this type.

Democrats aren’t too happy. Democratic congressman Peter DeFazio of Oregon says that Indiana is “giving away” a valuable taxpayer asset. No, Congressman .. Indiana is giving away noting. Indiana is considering selling a state-owned asset to private enterprise for a price! Perhaps that price will even include a revenue-sharing agreement with the state whereby Indiana will still collect revenues from the tolls, but will have absolutely no responsibility for maintenance and repair! Sounds like a pretty good deal from my side of this computer screen.

There’s a tiny little problem with this “logic”. If it’s going to cost Texas $100B to keep up with growth, you’re not going to lower the costs by having a private company do it, you’re going to add a layer (or several) of profit, including the inevitable Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous CEO salary. Neal is fond of pointing out that corporations don’t pay taxes, they just pass them on. It seems that he would realize that they don’t spend money on projects, they simply pass the costs to their customers – in this case, the tax-payers who use the roads and bridges.
And if you think Minnesota was lax in performing bridge maintenance, imagine the mindset of a company which could cut their bonuses to upgrade a bridge, OR they could bank the money and bid on the replacement project when the current one collapses. In the end it will cost taxpayers more and be less reliable. Brilliant solution, Neal, just brilliant! Next you’ll use your intellect and compassion (which you seem to have in equal amounts) to fix the tax code! Oh, yeah…

Live in New York Tonight!

If you’re in New York City, be advised that I’ll be the guest of comedian Lynn Winstead at her “Shoot the Messenger” show in the East Village. It’s at 8 pm at the Ace of Clubs, below Acme on Great Jones Street. See you there!

Sunday Funnies – vacation edition
posted by TheDon
I got in late from South Carolina Sunday night (NOT speeding!), so the notes are condensed this morning. I didn’t have my customary 2 receiver DVR, and they broadcast the shows at different times, but mostly I missed stuff I wanted to, and most of the GOOP debate, which counts as something I wanted to miss. Congress gave President WarCrimes expanded spying powers before scooting off for vacation, reinforcing the notion that we need more and better Democrats. Way more, way better. I’m tired of them using the Bob Allen defense against attacks on the Constitution. (Offer the attacker $20 and a blowjob.)

Sunday’s shows were a stunning full-court press by the Cheney administration to push the “surge is working” storyline, and attacks on Democratic front-runners. The stenographers played along.

Meat the Press

Bob Gates acknowledges how fundamentally wrong this administration has been in every aspect of the Iraq War so far, but NOW we should trust General Petraeus. Yikes. I guess you go on the Sunday shows with the storyline you have. Bob repeats the oft-claimed notion that Diyala and Al-Anbar “successes” prove that the “surge” is working, ignoring the worst July since the war began, and the claim by the Iraqi government that the power grid is about to completely fail.

Bob backs Cheney on the Edelman letter to Senator Clinton, ignoring his own prior denunciation. What a tool. He amusingly claims that if we have actionable intelligence that OBL is in Pakistan that Mushy would move on him. He says we wouldn’t move without permission, which I believe is true, but claims we would get permission which we know is false.

Panel Time

Carl Bernstein (Clinton biographer), Doris Kearns Goodwin (Lincoln biographer), David Mendell (Obama biographer), and David Boddy (CBN – WTF is he doing here?!?!?)

They spend their time bashing Clinton and Obama. Fun. Ambition and Arrogance seem to be the big flaws for both. Iowa poll says Clinton is comparatively strong and experienced, Obama is likewise honest and likable. Bernstein calls the voters “pretty smart” as a way of insulting Clinton’s honesty and likability, and Obama’s strength and experience. I really hate this panel.

The panel coalesces around the idea that the press hasn’t scrutinized presidential candidates enough, so it’s time to dig for flaws. That means more of what they did to Gore and Kerry on the Dem side, more of what they did to W on the GOOP side. Thanks, assholes!

More Dem bashing, and a national poll showing Dems up double digits on all issues except 5 points on morals, R’s with a slim lead on “strong military”, GWOT, and “homeland security”. Boddy claims that the only three issues that will matter are taxes, economy and GWOT, giving Rudy a big edge – calls him “authentic”. Heh. They really don’t like Mormons on CBN

Fred will apparently announce Sept 5. I’m starting to think of him as this cycle’s Wesley Clark – good on paper, no real chance. To clarify – I would never, ever compare the two men, only their much anticipated entrances into already crowded fields.

More Dem bashing, with Boddy calling them pussies for rolling over for wiretapping. Wait. That would be an *excellent* band name. Rolling Over for Wiretapping.

Bernstein says Hillary’s problem will be honety and candor, especially after the W presidency. It comes off as equating them. Ugh. On that note, they end the bashing. For now. I sense an anger growing in me as they do this for another year.

Fawkes News

What a waste of an hour. Condi! Only on Fawkes! Of course!

O’Hanlon and Pollack! Only in the echo chamber are they still referred to as “former war critics”.

A panel including Kristol and Krauthammer will be asked if Dems should be blaming W for the bridge collapse.

Condi starts with a list. Clearly the security situation has improved, clearly blah blah blah. Just. Can’t. Keep. Watching. This. Super. cilious. Liar.

I’ll pass on this noise and watch This Weak.

This Weak

Republican “debate”. Ugh. I’ll catch the end, after Faze The Nation.

Faze The Nation

First up, Condi! Wait. What? NOT just on Fawkes? Bless their hearts, they just can’t help lying. I guess they rightly assume that most of their viewers will never know the difference. I’ll try to make it through, since Schieffer will at least ask good questions.

Unlike on Fox, here she seems defensive and evasive, but it just has to be hard justifying not going after OBL in Pakistan (the NEW “Bush doctrine”?), and selling weapons to our enemies in Saudi Arabia. Laughably claims that, even though most foreign fighters in Iraq are Saudi, the real problem is Damascus. Says we are pushing for a security agreement with the US (I mean, the coalition of the willing), Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Good luck! Let us know how that turns out!

She then, amusingly, claims that the legislative vacation is unimportant because all the important people are still there, working on the framework. Guess she doesn’t know that half of the government ministers have resigned or are boycotting the “government”.

Rahm Emanuel comes on opposing the arms deal, says S.A. is not helping in Iran, Iraq or Israel. He hammers W for not doing the hard work of diplomacy for 6 and 1/2 years, and then trying to buy Saudi Arabia because we don’t have any credibility left in the region. Rahm claims that the atmosphere in Washington is better than it looks. Well, yeah. The liberals are going to be much nicer to the righties in the minority than the righties were to them. It’s our weakness, but one that is part of being a liberal.

Schieffer ends with a rant about Ted Stevens proving the need for ethics reform. Um. Yeah. Him and two dozen others that we know of.
Just don’t have the stomach to go back for more ‘publican “debate”.

TERROR IN THE BIBLE BELT!!!1!
posted by TheDon

Saturday, I was on the way back from Isle of Palms, SC, having spent a day at the beach with Mrs. TheDon and Mom and Dad TheDon, and having taken them to the Noisy Oyster for dinner. We were made to detour off of Hwy 176, and went way out of our way to get back to Holly Hill. (This is all true. No, really!) Curious about why the road was shut down, we were unable to find a reason. We finally saw on the late local news that a car was stopped with 2 “middle eastern men” with “explosive materials” in their trunk. One tiny little story popped up on AP, and pretty much NOTHING ELSE. Goose Creek is home to a Naval Weapons Station, and a brig where Jose Padilla was illegally detained and tortured (most likely).
The FBI says they will not release any more information until Monday. This story has all the elements necessary for a media orgy of fear and racism, so why the hell, outside of the wingnuts and warbloggers, is it such a small, quiet story? Before you comment that it might be because there’s nothing to the story, I’ll give you two words: Terror Cheese. So why? (or… why not?)
The flying monkeys were out in full force today, pumping the “successes” in Iraq. Condi was “ONLY ON FOX NEWS!”, although I then saw her on Face the Nation, and Robert Gates was on a couple of shows. My guess is that they didn’t want to lose the message that the “surge” is “working”, so they’ve put a lid on it. Am I too paranoid? Not paranoid enough? Just right but they are really after me? I just don’t trust this administration.

TGIF – Headed for the beach
posted by TheDon

I’m headed out for a long weekend in Charleston, helping my parents celebrate 51 (!) years of marriage. I’ll leave you with what I think is NASA’s official mixed drink.

Blastoff Tang
fill a double old-fashioned glass halfway with ice
3 oz orange flavored vodka
1 oz orange liquer (triple sec, etc)
top off with orange juice

Warning: Do NOT drink more than two of these. You could fall down, crack your head and start foaming at the mouth. With any luck you would then start acting like a liberal, or at least someone who cares about stare decisis.

Answer the Clue Phone, Speaker Pelosi
posted by TheDon
The Nation is reporting on a breakfast with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and it’s not pretty.

If she were not in the House–and not Speaker of the House–Nancy Pelosi says she “would probably advocate” impeaching President Bush. But given her current role as party leader, at a breakfast with progressive journalists today (named after our great friend Maria Leavey) Pelosi sketched her case against impeachment.

“The question of impeachment is something that would divide the country,” Pelosi said this morning during a wide-ranging discussion in the ornate Speaker’s office. Her top priorities are ending the war in Iraq, expanding health care, creating jobs and preserving the environment. “I know what our success can be on those issues. I don’t know what our success can be on impeaching the president.”

Those successes would be none, nada, zip and zilch, in case you were wondering. She knows it’s the right thing to do, and just has to know that she won’t get any of her agenda signed into law. It really would divide the country – 70% for, 30% against. What’s stopping her?

And Democrats could be judged harshly for partisan gridlock, just as the American people turned on Congressional Republicans in the 90s for pursuing the impeachment of President Clinton.

Oooooooooooh, right… The punishment that the Republicans received for a completely spurious impeachment of a very popular president. They only kept their stranglehold on the legislative branch for 8 more years, and “won” the next two presidential elections, finally losing Congress for supporting the current president, not for impeaching the previous one. That must have really stung. I can see why you want to avoid impeaching a deeply unpopular president over actual crimes.

She is greatly disturbed by the lawlessness of this Administration and its contempt for checks and balances. “I take an oath to defend and protect the Constitution, so it is a top priority for me and my colleagues to uphold that.” She notes the vigorous oversight hearings held by committee chairman like John Conyers and Henry Waxman.

Nancy, you might try reading the Constitution you took an oath to defend. This part especially. You would advocate impeachment if you weren’t Speaker, and had not taken an oath. You took an oath. Honor it. ITMFA. Then we can get back to the progressive agenda, Madam President.

Ted Rall: Live in New York!

Comedian and ex-Air America Radio personality Lizz Winstead will have me as her on-stage guest for her show “Shoot the Messenger.” Act I will be “a bunch of satirical sketches” and Act II is the guest segment (me). Here’s the scoop:

Date: Monday, August 6
Time: 8:30 pm
Where: Ace of Clubs (it’s the cabaret room between Acme Restaurant on Great Jones St. between Lafayette and Broadway)
More info: www.aceofclubsnyc.com

Thank you Steve Jobs
posted by TheDon

Radio in Atlanta is almost unlistenable. You might find a station playing music you like, but you’d better be able to stomach a lot of commercials. Talk radio is all right-wing, including most of the sports talk. Air Atlanta was bought by a local businessman who cancelled everything from Air America except the Al Franken Show, which no longer exists. Dan Patrick had an hour every day with Keith Olbermann, but now Patrick has left ESPN radio. It’s BAD.
We do have a small amount of consumer advocacy radio, financial help, gardening and such, but nothing suitable for a news junkie, except for the occasional amusing toe-dips into the right-wing cesspool. But at least we had NPR. Good old, reliable, mainstream NPR, now taken over by the political hacks of the Cheney administration. I’ve been tolerating stupid shit here and there for a while, but this morning pushed me over the edge.
Steve Inskeep was interviewing correspondent Tom Bowman about the Joint Chiefs nomination for Mullen. Mullen has not embraced the “surge”, and Bowman came out with this gem, “Mullen is not calling for a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq, like the Democrats are.” Straight from the White House talking points. In the morning I update my podcasts, and listen to Rachel Maddow on the way to work. I am running out of news sources, but half a day late is better than dead wrong.
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