The worst of circumstances

Rick Perry mansplains to Wendy Davis (who he refers to only as “the woman who filibustered in the Senate the other day”. She’s got a name, you know, Rick: Future Governor Wendy Davis): “Who are we to say that children born into the worst of circumstances can’t grow to live successful lives?”

That’s a good state motto for Texas, but a little long to fit on a license plate.

(Update: In the same speech, Perry said of the pro-choice movement, “the louder they scream, the more we know that we are getting something done.” Which would also be a good state motto.)

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Today -100: June 27, 1913: Of sexual hygiene and Asiatics

The Chicago Board of Education steps in to prevent talks on sexual hygiene being given in its high schools.

Headline of the Day -100: “Drive Asiatics Out of Town.” A mob in Hemet, CA expel some apricot-pickers who they thought were Japanese but were actually Korean. But they were definitely “Asiatics,” which is a scarier-sounding word than “Asians.”

(Update: the LAT reported on July 2nd that the State Dept had started an investigation of this incident, as it might affect pending negotiations with Japan over California’s racist alien land law, but it turned out that the Koreans had left Korea before it was annexed by Japan and are therefore not subjects of Japan or, presumably, anywhere else.)

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No regrets

In time for Texas’s 500th execution since 1976, AP interviews Charles Thomas O’Reilly, the retired warden of Huntsville, who oversaw 140 executions. He can’t remember the name of the first one. He says he has no regrets. How is this not a textbook example of sociopathy?

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Awad the Lame redux

The conviction of Sgt. Lawrence “Congratulations gents, we’ve just gotten away with murder” Hutchins III for a murder in Iraq in 2006, has been overturned.

As you may recall from my previous posts, his squad went out on a rogue mission to kill a suspected insurgent, but when that guy turned out not to be at home, they decided that any ol’ Iraqi would do and kidnapped and shot dead the man in the next house, who turned out to be Hashim Ibrahim Awad, a former policeman retired on medical grounds and known as Awad the Lame. Then planted an AK-47 and a shovel on him so they could claim he was planting an IED, even though they seem not to have had an actual IED, which you’d think would be a snag in their cunning little plan. Anyway, the army held him seven days and got a confession without his lawyer being present, so he’s out.

Fun exercise: google this story and count how many of today’s news reports mention Awad the Lame’s name.

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Today -100: June 26, 1913: Of primaries

NY Gov. Sulzer’s direct primary bill fails badly in the state senate, which moves on to begin a probe of Sulzer’s use of patronage power and the veto to influence votes on the bill. They’ll also investigate his campaign fund and anything else they can think of. Senators had a lot of fun comparing Sulzer to King Charles I.

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Voting rights, we hardly knew ye

The Supreme Court decision striking down the parts of the Voting Rights Act that make it useful doesn’t exactly declare that racism in America is over. Rather, it declares that collective justice in America is over and individualism is supreme (unless you’re a corporation, of course, those entities are golden). People can still sue states under the VRA to address discrimination – one at a time, as individuals. Because that’ll totally be effective in addressing institutional racism.

It’s of a piece with last week’s under-noticed decision in American Express Company v. Italian Colors, in which the Court upheld the right of corporations to insist on arbitration on an individual basis with the people it screws over even where only a class-action lawsuit is the only practical, economically viable way to enforce legal claims, for example in cases where a company over-charged a million people by $50 each, so that each individual case is too small for a lawyer to take it on. The Court ruled that it’s okay that “the plaintiff’s cost of individually arbitrating a federal statutory claim exceeds the potential recovery.” You still have the legal right not to be screwed out of that $50; it’ll just cost you $1,000 to recover it. Scalia writes that the law doesn’t “guarantee an affordable procedural path to the vindication of every claim. ... the fact that it is not worth the expense involved in proving a statutory remedy does not constitute the elimination of the right to pursue that remedy.”

Similarly, the Voting Rights Act still exists, but the ability and procedures to make it actually effective is an optional extra as far as the Supreme Court is concerned.

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Today -100: June 25, 1913: Of the confusion of the multitude

NY Gov. William Sulzer’s bill for direct primaries is defeated in the lower house of the Legislature, where his high-pressure tactics made him no friends: “the Judas of the Democratic Party,” “a traitor to those who made him politically,” “liar” were some of the words used to describe him during the debate. The bill was defeated 92-54. He did gain 8 votes since the last defeat, which just shows what the awarding of lucrative road contracts can (and can’t) get you. The vote did not split on party lines, which seems to mean that the Dem & Rep party establishments want to retain their power base, the conventions (Democratic majority leader Levy says primary elections would just provide for “the confusion of the multitude, which serves the purposes of the demagogue and the wielder of the Big Stick”), while many in the rank & file support greater voter democracy. The Bull Moosers supported primaries.

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Today -100: June 24, 1913: Of enemies of the state, Mexican mail, Baja, and angry midget managers

NY Gov. William Sulzer holds a sort of rally for his direct primary bill in the Capitol building. Here he is, winning friends and influencing people in his customary manner: “When I became governor I thought I didn’t have an enemy in the state. I know now that I have the most bitter enemies in the state. Nevertheless, I console myself with the reflection that every enemy that I have made in the performance of my duty since I became governor is an enemy of the state.” And so on. At length. Other supporters of the bill, including Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt also make speeches.

Pres. Wilson signs an appropriations bill containing a clause banning the use of funds for the prosecution of unions or farmers’ alliances for violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, although he attaches what these days is called a signing statement saying that he intends to ignore it.

The Mexican coup regime asks the US for help intercepting mail sent to Mexican revolutionists from the US .

The LAT claims “upon creditable authority” that the Mexican government has been trying to negotiate a large loan from Japanese bankers or, failing that, to sell Baja California to Japan for $40 million.

Headline of the Day -100: “Elephants Didn’t Go ’Round and ’Round.” (Sub-hed: “Managers of Midgets Angry.”) Some con artist got $1,500 from the owner of the Lilliputian Kingdom for a scheme to establish a circus.

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James Jesus Angleton, check your voicemail

If Obama’s anti-leak “insider threat” program, in which government employees are urged to spy on their colleagues to find the next Edward Snowden, were confined to US intelligence agencies, well, I’d just pop some popcorn, put my feet up, and watch the awesome entertainment spectacle, Spy Agencies Succumb to Fear and Paranoia – Again!

But insider threats are evidently to be found throughout the entire government. I can only hope the next leak is the online tutorial “Treason 101” used by... wait for it... the Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

These programs are evidently aimed at turning panopticonical (that’s a word, right?) suspicions on government employees who are experiencing stress in their lives (good luck, Carrie Mathison), divorce, financial problems, etc. An anonymous Pentagon dude warns of the slippery slope: “If this is done correctly, an organization can get to a person who is having personal issues or problems that if not addressed by a variety of social means may lead that individual to violence, theft or espionage before it even gets to that point.” I don’t even want to think about what “variety of social means” the Pentagon might use (drone strikes: it’s always drone strikes).

Time will tell whether these programs will alert the government to employees with real insider threats: a conscience, a fear of overweening governmental power, an understanding of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We’ve certainly done a good job of screening them out at the presidential level.

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Today -100: June 23, 1913: Of radicals out of uniform and non-lynchings

The Radical Party takes office in Denmark. And this is how radical the new Cabinet it: its members will refuse to wear uniforms, wear decorations, or be called “Excellency.”

A mob of 1,000 people attack the Dublin, Georgia jail in order to lynch three negroes accused of killing and robbing a white couple, but the sheriff had already slipped them out the back. The frustrated mob threatened to lynch all the other negroes still in the jail on minor charges, but were persuaded “by leading citizens” not to. It is not explained whether the leading citizens were there as participants in the lynch mob, but I think by now we all know the answer to that one.

Well, that’s odd. Just two days ago we had the death of the last surviving member of the 1861 Congress. Now, it’s Henry Jones, the last surviving member of the Confederate Congress (actually the Confederate provisional congress), dead at 92. Interestingly, he had voted against secession in the Alabama Legislature.

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Blackmail moments

The Republican idea of requiring complete border security before implementing any other aspect of immigration reform is obviously a way to pretend to support immigration reform while actually sabotaging it, but there’s more to it.

Rand Paul wants a requirement that Congress annually certify that border security is on track. What Republicans want is another regularly scheduled blackmail moment, like raising the debt ceiling. Look for them to try to create more and more of these.

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Today -100: June 22, 1913: Of polo, the last serfs in Europe, coal strikes, ice strikes, and plots to loot New York

Kaiser Wilhelm has banned army officers (and “especially” the crown prince) from playing polo.

France’s former (and future) prime minister Georges Clemenceau calls Romanian Jews “the last serfs still existing in Europe.” Romania literally treats native-born Jews not as citizens, but as foreigners (many of their ancestors had fled Russia in the 1840s), requiring a special act of parliament to become naturalized, which needless to say rarely happens (200 in 40 years). These officially stateless Jews are refused entry into public schools and various professions.

West Virginia Gov. Hatfield, getting stroppy about the ongoing Senate investigation of his running of martial law during the coal strike, says that if trouble breaks out again, he’ll wire the US Senate to take charge of it.

Speaking of strikes, there is an ice strike in Cincinnati and elsewhere. People are selling black-market ice at inflated prices.

As a special session of the New York Legislature is gearing up to crush Gov. Sulzer’s direct primary bill (again), a petition surfaces, from four jurors in a court case in 1890 in which Sulzer, a lawyer, sued a former client for fees. The jurors accused him of having committed perjury (the petition went to the DA, Frank Plumley, who is now a Republican congresscritter from Vermont and seems to have nothing to do with this, but I do want to note that Wikipedia says his wife was named Lavinia Lucretia Smith Fletcher Plumley, which... wow). Sulzer says the petition is a forgery and that Tammany’s Boss Murphy tried to use it to blackmail him into participating in a “plot to loot the state” and that Charles Curtis (Sulzer says he’s generally known as Crazy Curtis), the son of the judge who had possession of the document, had threatened to publish it if Sulzer didn’t appoint him to the state supreme court.

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Today -100: June 21, 1913: Of and survivors and purse-strings

Sydenham Ancona, the last surviving member of the 37th Congress, which was sitting when Civil War began, dies at 89. He was a Democrat from Pennsylvania.

France tells the Balkan states that if they go to war again, they’ll get no loans from France. Given that those countries are already in debt from the last war, this is a serious threat.

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Today -100: June 20, 1913: Of anti-Semites, the Marconi scandal, and human torches

Here’s a sentence in a NYT story about a German by-election: “The district was formerly anti-Semite.” That’s the Waldeck-Pyrmont District, in which a Radical candidate (SPD, I assume) defeated a dude from the anti-Semitic party.

The British Parliament votes to “vindicate” Chancellor David Lloyd George and Attorney General Rufus Isaacs of malfeasance and corruption in their purchases of Marconi Company stocks.

Horrific Headline of the Day -100: “Boy Turned Into a Torch.”

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Teaching girls their ABCs: Always Be Cooking

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Georgia) wants schools to teach children his idea of proper gender roles. This was in a debate on gay marriage, and is a perfect example of my assertion that homophobia is basically a subset of sexism.

“[W]e need to go back into the schools at a very early age, maybe at the grade school level, and have a class for the young girls and have a class for the young boys...” Separate but equal. “...and say, you know, this is what’s important. This is what a father does that is may be a little different, maybe -- maybe a little different, maybe a little better than the talent that a mom has in a certain area and same things for the young girls, you know, this is what a mom does and this is what’s important from the standpoint of that union. Which we call marriage.”

I hope someone will get him to tell us exactly what a father does that’s different and better than a mom does (note the formal “father” and the informal “mom”), and what the mom’s “different talent” is.

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It is citizens who choose whether to be defined by a wall

Obama held a press conference with Angela Merkel in Germany.

SCRUB? “But what I have been able to do is examine and scrub how our intelligence services are operating, and I’m confident that at this point, we have struck the appropriate balance.”

AVERTED: “We know of at least 50 threats that have been averted because of this information not just in the United States, but, in some cases, threats here in Germany. So lives have been saved.” We might be a bit more impressed if he’d tell us what exactly constitutes a “threat.” Then again, we probably wouldn’t.

Asked about his failure to close Guantanamo: “But about a month ago I gave a speech in which I said that I would redouble my efforts to do so.” Redouble: 2 X 0 = ?

Then he gave a speech at the Brandenburg Gate.

THERE WERE TWO BERLINS, YOU KNOW: “It was here that Berliners carved out an island of democracy against the greatest of odds.” Also a lot of hippies evading West German conscription, as I recall. And dogs in the restaurants, which was nice if unhygienic.

DEFINED BY A WALL: “Their strength and their passion, their enduring example remind us that for all the power of militaries, for all the authority of governments, it is citizens who choose whether to be defined by a wall, or whether to tear it down.” Elsewhere today, John McCain called once again for the US to build the dang fence. Just saying.

AS THE ACTRESS SAID TO THE BISHOP: “And this square itself, once a desolate no man’s land, is now open to all.”

EVOLVING: “The Iraq war is now over. The Afghan war is coming to an end. Osama bin Laden is no more. Our efforts against al Qaeda are evolving.” Our warriors are evolving huge index fingers with which to push the button on the drone controller’s joy stick.

WHO ARE YOU CALLING ORDINARY? “Our current programs are bound by the rule of law, and they’re focused on threats to our security -- not the communications of ordinary persons. They help confront real dangers, and they keep people safe here in the United States and here in Europe. But we must accept the challenge that all of us in democratic governments face: to listen to the voices who disagree with us”. Yeah, that’s what fucking worries us.

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Today -100: June 19, 1913: Of the rabbit theory, the Fed, and potty-mouthed Mother Jones

George Bernard Shaw writes to the London Times about women’s suffrage, observing that during the recent parliamentary debate on the Dickinson Bill, Asquith opposed suffrage “explicitly on the ground that woman is not the female of the human species, but a distinct and inferior species, naturally disqualified from voting as a rabbit is disqualified from voting. ... Many men would vote for anything rather than be suspected of the rabbit theory. It makes it difficult to vote for the Liberal Party and then look the women of one’s household in the face.”

Pres. Wilson proposes legislation to establish a new central bank, the first since Pres. Jackson strangled the Second Bank of the US. It is hoped that the Fed will counter-act the periodic panics and bubbles to which the US economy has been subject, and thus stabilize the currency. So that went well.

It’s the mineowners’ turn to present evidence at the Senate investigation into the West Virginia coal wars. They say that their hired goons only used their guns in self-defense, and quoted speeches by “Mother” Jones urging miners to arm themselves. The lawyer for the owners questioned a (negro) collier: “Did she use any profane language?” “She swore a good deal for a lady.”

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Barack Obama and the Ruckus of Doom

Obama spoke to Good Ol’ Charlie Rose about the NSA spying “ruckus,” as he called it, and other subjects.

TRADE-OFFS, NOT SACRIFICE: “we don’t have to sacrifice our freedom in order to achieve security. That’s a false choice. That doesn’t mean that there are not tradeoffs involved in any given program, in any given action that we take.” If you’re wondering what the difference is between sacrificing freedom and trading it off, he’s evidently constructing the silliest of straw arguments, that security requires sacrificing ALL our freedom, an argument even Cheney isn’t making. So we’re meant to be satisfied that instead of sacrificing all our freedom, Obama and his merry men are sacrificing some portion of it, the size of which we are not allowed to know. I know I feel better.

He compares NSA surveillance to airport security – “all of us make a decision that we go through a whole bunch of security at airports”. I didn’t know it was voluntary. Also, “ALL of us”? Does HE go through a whole bunch of security at airports?

He says the FISA court is transparent, or the top secret FISA court is the reason domestic spying is transparent, honestly I don’t know what the hell he’s trying to say, but I’d like someone to ask him to define “transparent” for us.

He says the reason the FISA court so rarely/never turns down any requests is because “folks don’t go with a query unless they’ve got a pretty good suspicion.” Phew.

AND SHOT SOMEONE IN THE FACE WITH IT? “Dick Cheney sometimes says, ‘Yeah, you know? He took it all lock, stock, and barrel.’”

He talks about being opposed on domestic spying by the left, and how the right under Bush blah blah blah, which is one way of refusing to acknowledge that there is any principled opposition.

Anyway, he says, “all these programs... have disrupted plots”. Disrupted is a usefully vague word, like when he says we’ve broken the momentum of the Taliban, designed to provide no objective criterion on which to judge the success or failure of the surveillance.

On the subject of Syria, he describes the opposition (who he opposes arming “willy nilly”) as “carpenters and blacksmiths and dentists. These aren’t professional fighters.” I don’t know about you, but I’m more scared of dentists than I am of professional fighters, so I don’t know that he’s doing the image of the Syrian opposition much good here. Also, just how many blacksmiths does Syria have?

Here, as everywhere, Obama claims to be upholding the center: “what we’re trying to do is take sides against extremists of all sorts and in favor of people who are in favor of moderation, tolerance, representative government, and over the long-term, stability and prosperity for the people of Syria.” And nothing says moderation, tolerance, representative government, stability and prosperity like rocket launchers.

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Today -100: June 18, 1913: You seem to be afraid that one of your steers will be killed and eaten by Mexicans

Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan meets with Americans who own property in Mexico, and tells them the Wilson administration will continue Taft’s non-intervention policy. The delegation seems to feel that Bryan thinks they’re more interested in money than principles – imagine that! – and quote him as saying “You seem to be afraid that one of your steers will be killed and eaten by Mexicans.”

The LAT reports that Woodrow Wilson “cast precedent aside” and took off his coat in the Oval Office. Because it was hot. Fox News would have been all over that shit.

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Today -100: June 17, 1913: Of sincere revolutions and knitting marquises

The International Women’s Suffrage Alliance congress, meeting in Budapest, refuses to commit itself either for or against militant tactics in Britain, but does note that “a sincere revolution, accompanied by disorder, has never been construed as an argument against man suffrage.”

Obituary of the Day -100: “Marquis Who Knitted Dead.” The Marquis of Northampton. Who evidently knitted.

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