Topical comic: “So You’ve Been Indefinitely Detained…” by Ruben Bolling. Enjoy.

TPM has a rundown that also includes some great quotes from the Florida Family Association, aka the right wing nutjobs who badgered Lowe’s into pulling their ads from the program:

The show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to liberties and traditional values that the majority of Americans cherish.

In other words: “Your show about Mooslims doesn’t show them to be insane freaks like we all know they are! Fix it!”

Take a look at this guy, and tell me he doesn’t remind you of this guy.

According to another aviation security expert, the TSA has basically wasted at least $56 billion without producing any real security benefits. No surprise there, of course.

It’s not like there’s any danger of him being the nominee, but it still blows my mind that Santorum can say things like “no one has ever died for lack of health insurance in the US.” Who ARE these people?

[…] the frenzied dissolution of due process and individual rights that took took place under George Bush’s watch, and continued uncorrected even when supposed liberal constitutional lawyer Barack Obama took office, has now come full circle and become an important element to the newer political controversy involving domestic/financial corruption and economic injustice.

[…] when we militarized our society in response to the global terrorist threat, we created a new psychological atmosphere in which the use of force and military technology became a favored method for dealing with dissent of any kind.

Glenn Greenwald wrote this week that “when we militarized our society in response to the global terrorist threat, we created a new psychological atmosphere in which the use of force and military technology became a favored method for dealing with dissent of any kind.” Taibbi continues:

Why did that step turn out to be so small? Because of the countless decisions we made in years past to undermine our own attitudes toward the rule of law and individual rights. Every time we looked the other way when the president asked for the right to detain people without trials, to engage in warrantless searches, to eavesdrop on private citizens without even a judge knowing about it, we made it harder to answer the question: What is it we’re actually defending?

In another time, maybe, we might have been able to argue that we were using force to defend the principles of modern Western civilization, that we were “spreading democracy.”

Instead, we completely shat upon every principle we ever stood for, stooping to torture and assassination and extrajudicial detention.

From the very start we unleashed those despotic practices on foreigners, whom large pluralities of the population agreed had no rights at all. But then as time went on we started to hear about rendition and extralegal detention cases involving American citizens, too, though a lot of those Americans turned out to be Muslims or Muslim-sympathizers, people with funny names.

And people mostly shrugged at that, of course, just as they shrugged for years at the insane erosion of due process in the world of drug enforcement. People yawned at the no-knock warrants and the devastating parade of new consequences for people with drug convictions (depending on the state, losing the right to vote, to receive educational aid, to live in public housing, to use food stamps, and so on).

They didn’t even care much about the too-innocuously-named new practice of “civil asset forfeiture,” in which the state can legally seize the property of anyone, guilty or innocent, who is implicated in a drug investigation – a law that permits the state to unilaterally deem property to be guilty of a crime.

Finally:

The UC Davis incident crystallized all of this in one horrifying image. Anyone who commits violence against a defenseless person is lost. And the powers that be in this country are lost. They’ve been going down this road for years now, and they no longer stand for anything.

Just go read the whole thing.

Unsurprisingly, it turns out that this isn’t actually true.

If you weren’t already enraged about the way police in multiple cities responded to nonviolent protests, then maybe the ongoing and very disturbing approach these cities and police departments are employing to reduce press coverage — and therefore oversight — will be enough to get your attention.

Finally, on the subject of the cops themselves, as always Fred has wise words:

When your actions are lawful, honorable and just, you perform them in the light of day. You have nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide. You don’t need to seek out publicity and the camera’s eye, but you have no cause to avoid them because you can be proud of your actions, knowing them to be lawful, honorable and just.

If your actions are such that you perform them in the dark of night, avoiding cameras and witnesses or even employing the threat of force to ensure secrecy, then it is obvious to all — to you and to everyone else — that your actions are not lawful, not honorable and not just.

Obviously everyone’s aware that my ancestral state voted down a “personhood” amendment on Tuesday, but what kinda snuck in this week in Texas is that we’ve apparently rejected the notion of having any Confederate flag plates available.

This is, predictably, irritating to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which is just fine by me because I’m pretty sure most things that irritate them are good ideas. The flag in question is a symbol of treason, slavery, and postwar terror.

No, seriously. They insisted on what amounts to a “safe harbor” provision in an anti-bullying law that protects bullying based on religious beliefs.

[S]ocial conservatives believe that efforts to protect gays from assault, discrimination or bullying impinge on their religious freedom to express and act on their belief that homosexuality is an abomination. That’s stating it harshly, but it is the underlying belief.

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

Because Mississippi doesn’t have enough poor, unwanted babies, and because they feel being first in teen pregnancy is something to be proud of, my home state is almost certain to pass the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the country. In fact, it’s not a pro-life bill. It’s an amendment to the state Constitution that defines personhood as beginning at conception, and welcomes all that follows from that. No exceptions are to be made for rape or incest, for example. More troubling, the boosters are welcoming the fact that many broadly accepted means of birth control work by first attempting to prevent fertilization, but then also prevent implantation: those methods would likely become illegal under the law, to say nothing of emergency contraception, some IUDs, many procedures associated with IVF, and presumably medically necessary abortions (e.g., as with ectopic pregnancies).

Oh, Mississippi. How am I supposed to convince people out in the world you’re not an insane bunch of right-wingers when, honestly, enough of you are that this will probably pass? This is being driven by the raving nutbird looney right, of course, but they find Mississippi pretty welcoming. Lest you forget, the American Family Association is based over there, presumably because Nevada got first choice.

There’s just so much defending you can do in the face of things like this. It’s like Mississippi is DETERMINED to stay ignorant, poor, and dead last in any category that matters. I commend folks who stay there and try to make it better; they’re doing God’s work, and I say that not just because they’re my brother. But I read stories like this, or pay attention to the ongoing fiascos of criminal justice in Mississippi that Radley Balko covers, and it just kills me. It makes me angry, sure, but ultimately it just makes me sad.

There’s really no other way to explain their ongoing hardon for Planned Parenthood.

A Waco, TX prosecutor is opposing post-conviction DNA testing of a possible innocence case on the grounds that it might override what the jury decided.

This is an excellent cartoon.

Apparently, if you’re a Fed, and you’ve recovered a stolen $750,000 Ferrari F50, and you decide to take it for a joy ride and total it, the government can get away without paying for the damages because it’s not responsible for damage to items held in custody.

Which is, of course, bullshit.

Balko: “The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill on Friday that would make it a federal crime for U.S. residents to discuss or plan activities on foreign soil that, if carried out in the U.S., would violate the Controlled Substances Act.”

In other words, they want U.S. law to govern you no matter where you are. So: Planning to buy some special brownies in Amsterdam? That would be illegal under this law.

Really, it should just get out of the way.

Yeah, turns out there was no $16 muffin.

The GOP leadership is taking fire from both sides for a transparent and craven attempt to strongarm Ben Bernake into taking no action on the economy.

Gosh, why would the Republicans want to keep the economy from getting better? /sarcasm.

U.S. Commemorates 9/11 By Toasting Stable Afghan Government From Top Of Freedom Tower:

In a moving and beautiful ceremony held atop Lower Manhattan’s gleaming, 120-story-tall Freedom Tower, the nation commemorated the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by raising a glass to the stable democracy of Afghanistan and to a decade of unprecedented peace and prosperity across the globe.

As a brilliant cascade of red, white, and blue fireworks lit up the skyscraper’s observation deck, those in attendance reflected on the horrible tragedy that improbably, and stirringly, gave way to a harmonized Middle East and one of the most triumphant and fruitful eras in the history of the great American republic.

“A decade ago, 3,000 of our citizens perished in a senseless attack on American soil, and as I stand here today atop this magnificent edifice, celebrating the thriving republic of Afghanistan and all our allies in the now wholly stable Muslim world, it’s clear the U.S. has not only risen from the ashes, it has flourished,” said former U.S. president and master of ceremonies George W. Bush, who was widely applauded after 9/11 for respecting the rights of citizens at home and abroad while combating terrorism through largely peaceful means. “These last 10 years could have been divisive, turbulent, sad, hopeless, and grotesque. But instead, they were the exact opposite of those things. And for that we must all feel both blessed and truly proud.”

There’s more.

I’ve said this before, in very simple terms: If your party is taking active steps to reduce voter turnout by making it harder for people to vote, you are well and truly evil.

Heritage doofuses like this guy cherrypick data to suggest that Voter ID bills like Georgia’s don’t impact turnout — despite clear evidence to the contrary. Conservative jackasses on talk radio suggest that registering the poor to vote is like handing out burglary tools to criminals.

There is no voter fraud problem in this country today. If there were, there’d be indictments, or at least arrests. There are essentially none:

A major probe by the Justice Department between 2002 and 2007 failed to prosecute a single person for going to the polls and impersonating an eligible voter, which the anti-fraud laws are supposedly designed to stop. Out of the 300 million votes cast in that period, federal prosecutors convicted only 86 people for voter fraud – and many of the cases involved immigrants and former felons who were simply unaware of their ineligibility.

Poor voter turnout helps the GOP. High voter turnout hurts them. That this is their solution amazes me. I can think of few political initiatives that are more fundamentally un-American and anti-democratic.

So Warren Buffett got shouted down this week by the chattering right wingers for his utterly reasonable op-ed noting that he pays too little in taxes. Fox was, of course, livid, and called Buffett a socialist, among other things.

Thank God for Jon Stewart. Just go over and watch.

Over at the Agitator, we find this:

Back in 2007, the Grits for Breakfast blog noted that Williamson County, Texas, District Attorney John Bradley gave some curious advice on a discussion board to another prosecutor. The other prosecutor was asking about how to construct a plea agreement in a way that would forfeit any future right to DNA testing. Bradley responded, “Innocence, though, has proven to trump most anything.” How unfortunate! He then added:

A better approach might be to get a written agreement that all the evidence can be destroyed after the conviction and sentence. Then, there is nothing to test or retest. Harris County regularly seeks such agreements.

Destroying evidence is an odd way to seek justice, especially given how many “slam dunk” cases and convictions based on false confessions have later been overturned after DNA testing.

How completely fucked up is that? No prosecutor who seeks to prevent DNA exoneration should ever be allowed in a courtroom again; that’s madness.

More madness: Rick Perry just loves this guy:

If you’ll remember, just before the Texas Forensic Science Commission was set to open up an investigation into the Cameron Todd Willingham case, Perry abruptly replaced three of the commissioners with nominees who were more friendly to prosecutors, all of whom opposed reopening the case.

One of the replacements Perry nominated was . . . you guessed it . . . Williamson County, Texas, District Attorney John Bradley.

Ron Paul came within a few hundred votes of winning Iowa outright, but you’d never know that from the press.

Balko embeds the Daily Show’s coverage of same; go watch.

Via Balko:

Drivers have no recourse if police say the tape from a dashboard-mounted video camera is not available, according to a ruling Wednesday from the Texas Court of Appeals. Mark Lee Martin wanted to defend himself against drug possession charges filed in the wake of an August 29, 2008 traffic stop, but he was told no video was available.

and

“The officers intentionally destroyed the video and thereby put exculpatory evidence as far as the search is concerned or evidence favorable to the accused out of the reach of the accused,” Martin’s attorney claimed. “We feel that for no other reason the search is invalid and any evidence found as a result of that search should be suppressed.”

The appellate court found no merit in this argument.

“We agree with the state that the record supports a finding by the district court that the police did not act in bad faith,” Justice Bob Pemberton wrote. “The United States Supreme Court has held that ‘unless a criminal defendant can show bad faith on the part of the police, failure to preserve potentially useful evidence does not constitute a denial of due process of law.'”

In case this isn’t clear: this ruling means cops can alter or delete the dashcam footage if the video might contain something they don’t want the courts to see, and there will be no recourse for the defendant. “Gee, sorry, must’ve been broken” is the new mantra.

More on this here.

Astonishing number of folks have no idea what rates have historically been; this is a good chart of the last 25 years or so, per rough bracket.

Obama: Debt Ceiling Deal Required Tough Concessions By Both Democrats And Democrats Alike:

WASHINGTON — A day after signing legislation that raised the government debt ceiling and authorized steep budget cuts, President Obama thanked Democrats as well as Democrats for their willingness to make tough, but necessary, concessions during negotiations. “I’m truly grateful that both Democrats and their Democratic counterparts were able to reach this consensus, accepting an agreement that is far from perfect not just for Democrats, but also for Democrats,” Obama said Wednesday of the deal that cut federal spending $2.1 trillion over 10 years but included no revenue increases of any kind. “Lawmakers from across the political spectrum — from moderate Democrats to the more liberal members of the party to dyed-in-the-wool progressives — reached within the aisle and showed the nation that compromise requires real sacrifice from everyone.” Obama added that while it may look ugly at times, politics is about Democrats giving up what they want, as well as Democrats giving up what they want, until an agreement can ultimately be reached.

Our national intelligence leaders are still refusing to tell two Senators exactly how they’re using the PATRIOT act to spy on us.

More here.

God Urges Rick Perry Not To Run For President:

AUSTIN, TX — Describing Texas Gov. Rick Perry as grossly unqualified for the position, God, the Creator and Ruler of the Universe, urged Perry not to run for president of the United States Wednesday. “I prayed last night and asked the Lord to support my candidacy, and He said no,” Perry told reporters outside the Texas Capitol, explaining that God had cited the governor’s rejection of federal stimulus funds to expand state jobless benefits, his irresponsible speculation about Texas seceding from the union, and his overall lack of concrete solutions to nation’s problems as reasons why He could not endorse a Perry presidential bid. “I believe God made some valid points about my lack of credentials, and He’s absolutely right. My extreme beliefs when it comes to social issues and states’ rights are not only disturbingly narrow-minded, but would also make me a horrible president.” When reached for comment, God said He would not be present at Perry’s much-talked-about Christian day of prayer on Aug. 6, calling the governor’s use of his public office to endorse a religion both “irresponsible” and a violation of the Constitution.

Talking Points Memo is all over the Republican war on voting.

They’ve completely embraced the fact that, when more people vote, they do less well. So they’re actively working to make it harder to vote. How do they sleep at night?

The US is, firmly, a very low tax nation — and our taxes now are at very low levels even for us.

Context is key.

In the wake of Georgia’s new super-tough anti-immigrant law, crops are rotting in the fields because there aren’t enough agricultural workers to do the harvest.

Nice job.

“Please, don’t let your vacation be ruined by socialism!“

The GOP is taking great pains to ensure Congress does nothing that will help the economy before the 2012 elections. And never mind about all those people, you know, that dallying like this will affect.

It’s pretty easy to see why Palin would consider running for President, or at least consider looking like she might: her leap from backwater civil servant to millionaire was accomplished exclusively through her sudden national exposure via the McCain campaign. More of the same will doubtless line her pockets well even if she bows out early.

What’s less clear to me is why Rick Santorum thinks he’s got a shot at all. His most recent electoral experience was getting voted out of his Senate seat, so he’s got the taint of LOSER on him already. He’s a strident right-winger unlikely to garner much centrist support. I suppose he could be banking on the exposure helping him in a future race, but he’s not telegenic enough to cash in like Palin. The alternative is that he’s self-deluded enough to think he could challenge even Palin or Romney or Pawlenty for the nomination, and that he has a chance vs. an incumbent Obama in the general.

Who really thinks that?

Check out the Obama campaign’s new t-shirt.

SCOTUS says cops can come in if there’s exigent circumstances, and that it’s quite okay if they create those exigent circumstances themselves. In other words, law enforcement can now basically enter your home at will, and good luck fighting them in court afterwards.

I’m sure this will never be abused at all.

He’s been railing against the whole idea of Federal flood control this week.

It’s not like I think any Heathen think of Paul (either of them) as anything other than kooks, but I point this out to remind you that there are actually people out there who think of him as reasonable perhaps only because they don’t realize how kooky he is.

Bush’s “torture lawyer” has put himself through some rather torturous logical twists in order to conclude that it was a mistake for Obama to kill Bin Laden.

Courtesy of the Onion:

Though Mitt Romney is considered to be a frontrunner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, the national spotlight has forced him to repeatedly confront a major skeleton in his political closet: that as governor of Massachusetts he once tried to help poor, uninsured sick people.

Romney, who signed the state’s 2006 health care reform act, has said he “deeply regrets” giving people in poor physical and mental health the opportunity to seek medical attention, admitting that helping very sick people get better remains a dark cloud hovering over his political career, and his biggest obstacle to becoming president of the United States of America.

“Every day I am haunted by the fact that I gave impoverished Massachusetts citizens a chance to receive health care,” Romney told reporters Wednesday, adding that he feels ashamed whenever he looks back at how he forged bipartisan support to help uninsured Americans afford medicine to cure their illnesses. “I’m only human, and I’ve made mistakes. None bigger, of course, than helping cancer patients receive chemotherapy treatments and making sure that those suffering from pediatric AIDS could obtain medications, but that’s my cross to bear.”

“My hope is that Republican voters will one day forgive me for making it easier for sick people — especially low-income sick people — to go to the hospital and see a doctor,” Romney added. “It was wrong, and I’m sorry.”

Yesterday marked 150 years since the first shots fired at Fort Sumter, starting the American Civil War.

In an effort to counter the “lost cause” types, my online acquaintance Doug Masson lays it out in The Sesquicentennial of Treason. I think he nails it:

My purpose is not to berate the actions of people who lived 150 years ago. History is crowded to bursting with barbarity. And, for that matter, I’m sure our time will have plenty to answer for when future generations take a look back. But modern day Lost Cause apologists drive me crazy. It seems to me that our country is still wounded by slavery and the Civil War. And, while that wound is gradually scabbing over, it is still festering. I don’t think the wound can really heal until everyone in the country, including the south, recognizes: 1) that slavery was evil; 2) that the Civil War was prompted by a defense of that evil; 3) that the South was beaten; and 4) that it was a good thing the South lost because its reasons for taking up arms against the country were immoral.

It should surprise precisely no one that BYU has a very interesting history when it comes to applying its “honor code” to athletes. Hint: you are substantially more likely to get in hot water if you’re black and non-mormon. OTOH, if you’re a lilly-white son of Utah with a mission on your resume, odds are they look the other way. Imagine that!

Can you say “selective enforcement,” boys and girls? Remember, the LDS didn’t even admit that black (men) were fully members of the church until 1978.

The fellow Harry Connick Sr.’s office framed for murder has an editorial in the NYT about his experience.

The prosecutors involved in my two cases, from the office of the Orleans Parish district attorney, Harry Connick Sr., helped to cover up 10 separate pieces of evidence. And most of them are still able to practice law today.

Why weren’t they punished for what they did? When the hidden evidence first surfaced, Mr. Connick announced that his office would hold a grand jury investigation. But once it became clear how many people had been involved, he called it off.

In 2005, I sued the prosecutors and the district attorney’s office for what they did to me. The jurors heard testimony from the special prosecutor who had been assigned by Mr. Connick’s office to the canceled investigation, who told them, “We should have indicted these guys, but they didn’t and it was wrong.” The jury awarded me $14 million in damages — $1 million for every year on death row — which would have been paid by the district attorney’s office. That jury verdict is what the Supreme Court has just overturned.

I don’t care about the money. I just want to know why the prosecutors who hid evidence, sent me to prison for something I didn’t do and nearly had me killed are not in jail themselves. There were no ethics charges against them, no criminal charges, no one was fired and now, according to the Supreme Court, no one can be sued.

This can’t just be the cost of doing business. These lawyers need to be held accountable. Of course, accountability for those in power is something folks like Scalia and Thomas think of as “bad,” and so they reversed the lower courts’ decisions.

Wayne Christian, a state rep of I’ll-bet-you-can-guess-which-party, has introduced a bill in Austin that mandates that any state college or university that uses state money for a GLBT support group must also fund a “Family Values Center” with an equivalent grant.

More at the Texas Observer.

TBogg quotes it here, but the source is this two-year-old post:

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

According to Clarence Thomas and his equally reprehensible buddy Scalia, a man deliberately railroaded to death row is not entitled to any compensation after all, and never mind what any other court said.

I’m oversimplifying a little, but click through: it really is that simple. The DA’s office hid evidence in older to frame this guy, and nobody will go to jail or be held liable at all. Oops! Sorry we fucked your life! 

Prosecutorial immunity has GOT to stop.

Maine’s reactionary doofus of a GOP governor has removed a labor mural from the state’s Department of Labor, and removed the labor-leader names from several conference roomes because “the mural and the conference room names are not in keeping with the department’s pro-business goals.”

All hail the Uterus Police:

Under a GOP-backed bill expected to sail through the House of Representatives, the Internal Revenue Service would be forced to police how Americans have paid for their abortions. To ensure that taxpayers complied with the law, IRS agents would have to investigate whether certain terminated pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. And one tax expert says that the measure could even lead to questions on tax forms: Have you had an abortion? Did you keep your receipt?

Yeah, the GOP gets more repugnant: Minnesota Republicans to Outlaw Poor People Having Money:

Minnesota’s Republican lawmakers are, as expected, very angry about poor people. Why give those poor people money when we know they’ll just spend it on the hip-hop and fancy sneakers and for crack smokin’. So, the Republicans had an idea: Until any kind of welfare or assistance to the needy is completely outlawed, which will be soon enough, Minnesota should make it illegal for people getting “emergency cash assistance” to have any of the cash assistance in cash.

So, the poorest families and the poorest disabled adults would be unable to take any of this money as cash, even though poor people by design are kept from having bank accounts or a checkbook, which is why they usually pay bills and rent in cash:

St. Paul, MN – Minnesota Republicans are pushing legislation that would make it a crime for people on public assistance to have more $20 in cash in their pockets any given month. This represents a change from their initial proposal, which banned them from having any money at all

Take a look at this chart.