Last Week in Politics

• Hmm? Can you think of anyone would pay more than market value for this stuff? Seems to be a clear constitutional Bill of Rights violation because the absolute inviolable individual right to bear arms made from this stuff is apparently infringed.

• Speaking of which, why does the NRA fail and refuse to advocate for the cessation of the infringement of the clear and absolute constitutional right to bear personal arms constructed from this material? After all, if one has a home on residential property (say a typical ordinary residential square 30 miles on a side with the house tucked into an upwind corner at an elevation of about 3,000 feet above sea level and a 14,000 foot mountain range bisecting the property), these personal arms certainly can be used in defense of one's home and surrounding land (especially the downwind side of the property).
• Wrong! What transparency will do is make civil servants more likely to follow the clear mandates of national and international law in the future (one wonders if they would cross a rush hour freeway (say the 10 between downtown LA and the beach about 4:30 p.m. any weekday afternoon) on foot against traffic if they had a legal opinion telling them it was lawful). Since these techniques will not be used in the future it is irrelevant if some train to withstand techniques to which they will never ever be subjected by the U.S. There will be no substantial involvement or embroilment of lower level officials (those not elected by a nationwide vote or long-time employees of a given agency) because they can be given full immunity for everything except perjury or obstruction of justice in their comments and actions after they receive immunity.
  "What the intelligence officials want to hide is that--even after they did this damage to Abu Zubadaydah (though before the ICRC called it torture in 2007)--Steven Bradbury wrote an OLC memo declaring this treatment legal."

• ACLU fears Obama Administration may destroy evidence at CIA 'black sites'

• The primaries are starting early: Pelosi for President (talk about relatively low probability events)
• Ridicule by Obama's spokesperson (a paid employee of the public) of those asking whether the Obama Administration would stand for justice and assist, when asked, those seeking to bring torturers to justice. This is not change. This is smug, arrogant, supercilious, belittling, degrading Ari Fleisher and Dana Perino all over again.
• Something is very seriously wrong if Joe Biden is silent. Biden was elected directly by the people's representatives in the Electoral College; his oath is to the Constitution as opposed to any other person or official. Perhaps Biden will do a better job of remembering this than the job done by Colin Powell who reportedly thought he had some obligation of loyalty to George W. Bush rather than to the oath of office Powell took willingly, freely, and voluntarily.
• How dumb can we be in Iraq?
• Mother Jones magazine: "Our treasury secretary hopes to circumvent laws enacted to protect the economy by subsidizing a bunch of multimillionaire investors—ostensibly to help regulators fulfill their most basic job description—in a bid to prop up bankers who cooked their books to support a gambling binge and still refuse to admit they lost."
• Use a line prompt, go to jail (at Boston College) (honest students use icons?)
• We were thinking about bombing North Korea

• Schadenfreude is beneath me, except in the case of Newt Gingrich. I can't help laughing. Can you spell hypocrite?

• Veteran of United States Army and United States Marine Corps commits truth (thereby disqualifying himself permanently from joining preponderance of Washington journalistic press corps) by truthfully advising Rush Limbuagh that he (Limbaugh) is a "brainwashed Nazi" due to, inter alia, his support of torture. Audio here
• Report by Prof. Scott Horton, lawyer and correspondent for Harper's Magazine, confirms Pres. Obama and Attorney General Holder violate their oaths of office by failing to investigate conspiracy to torture by a now-sitting federal appellate judge, an employee of a major American oil company, the former Attorney General, and three other former government employees:
• Franken wins in Minnesota Senate race per Minnesota Election Contest Court
  While The NYTimes did note in the first sentence that Franken was the victor ("A three-judge state panel Monday declared Al Franken, a Democrat, the victor in a Senate race here that has dragged Minnesota through prolonged litigation and recounts."), Nagourney went on to write this false statement: "By any measure, this latest ruling – the latest in a string against Mr. Coleman – further diminishes his hopes of holding on to his seat."
  The seat is in no sense Coleman's. Coleman has not been a U.S. Senator since about Jan. 6, 2009, when the senators elected in November 2008 (with the exception of Franken) were sworn into office. If the seat belongs to anyone it belongs to the people of Minnesota. Coleman has not been paid for any work in the Senate since about Jan. 6, 2009, which was the ending date of the term Coleman won after his opponent, U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, was killed two weeks before the 2002 election and a few days after Senator Wellstone appeared to gain a lead in pre-election polls.
  The Associated Press did not distinguish itself either in its reporting of Franken's victory: "A Minnesota court confirmed Monday that Democrat Al Franken won the most votes in his 2008 Senate race against Republican Norm Coleman."
  At least one observer missed the AP report after the Jan. 2009 counting of the electoral votes won in the Nov. 2008 election in which AP alleged that Barack Obama won the most electoral votes but failed to report that Obama won the election.
• Ex bureau director Freeh apparently admits to assisting a foreign nation in circumvention of Congressional arms control oversight.
  Did Freeh look the other way (deliberately or recklessly or negligently) (when the bureau field agents were stopped from making inquiries which probably would have prevented the events of 2001) for Bandar and the Saudis in the run-up to September 2001 which happened a matter of days after his successor took over at the bureau?
  What role, if any, did Freeh play in getting all of the Saudis out of the U.S. by plane just after (or before) the U.S. air system was opened for U.S. citizens in 2001?