Ein Völker

Consider:

We got a lot of folks from different backgrounds and different states, all of whom were talking about the effects of the pro-growth economic package that was passed by the Congress and how that package is causing them to make capital investments that they might not have made in the year 2008.

or:

And I just want the folks to know what I told the Taoiseach is true, that the United States will continue to stay engaged and will be very supportive of helping the process move forward.

or:

I also congratulate the Prime Minister on having a 16 percent flat tax. I'm a little envious. I would like to have been able to achieve the same objective for our tax code, and it was a smart thing to get done, because I think those kinds of policies will enable the Romanian folks to have a bright future.

or even:

Why don't I start out with Israel, because it's freshest and most recent. I think I had good sessions all the way around. A lot of the folks I've known a long time. I've known Ehud Olmert since he was mayor of Jerusalem. We used to attend together the Jerry Ford conference in Beaver Creek, Colorado, under AEI auspices every June.

If you go over to the White House website, you can find nearly 2000 references by the President or some other administration official referring to "folks."

Now, consider this:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all folks are created equal . . .

or:

We the folks of the United States . . .

or:

. . . that government of the folks, by the folks, and for the folks shall not perish . . .

It's kind of chilling, isn't it?

This is not just a matter of the incapacity of the folks in the current administration to employ a little more soaring rhetoric. Rather, it is as Susan Jacoby suggests in her new book, The Age of American Unreason, a diminutive for referring to people, or citizens. Folks aren't expected to think hard thoughts the way citizens are.

Folks implies an Orwellian animal clubiness, a rathskeller assemblage of smiling rustics, or the rallying around the security of the homeland, or is it the Fatherland? It is part of the anti-intellectual forces that have roamed the land for most of Spot's adult life.

It is part of the same crap that permits Hillary Clinton and John McCain, both raised in privilege, to call Barack Obama, raised by a single mother and grandparents, elitist.

When George Bush, or Dick Cheney, or any of the other administration flacks call you folks, people, it is not because they're your chums and they want to have a beer with you. No, it's because they want you to turn your civil liberties and your responsibilities as a thinking citizen over to them.

Technorati Tags: folks,George Bush,Dick Cheney,George Orwell,Susan Jacoby

Drinking Liberally tonight (Thursday)

We will meet at the 331 Club in northeast Minneapolis from about six to nine.

No formal program, but Spot may bring a video camera and interview some of you about what you think a democracy really is, what you believe are your duties as a citizen, your view of the role of the media, and what you'll be doing during the Republican Convention late this summer.

It might be a chance for you to use up a few of your fifteen minutes of fame for a video project sponsored by The Uptake.

Technorati Tags: Drinking Liberally,331 Club,The Uptake

Singing in the rain!

Alternate title: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!

The last scene in The Life of Brian:

And so says Katie "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" Kersten today!

Minnesotans are facing real economic challenges, and there's some justification [Katie really works up a passion for things sometimes] for both private and government efforts to soften the sharp edges.

But before we declare an economic emergency and demand a "New Deal" for the new millennium, let's remember a classic American resource that was in ample supply 75 years ago, when unemployment was not 5.1 percent, but 25 percent.

Hey, that's great Spotty! I didn't know we had a classic American resource that was going to get us out of this economic jam. Will it work in Iraq, too? What's the resource?

Katie wants us to look at the glass as half full.

You're kidding, right?

No, Spot is not kidding.

Maybe Katie lives in the half of the glass that's full!

That's a good way to look at it, grasshopper. And undoubtedly true.

Katie goes on to wax nostalgic about the hardships endured by her parents and grandparents:

If you know people who grew up in the Great Depression and started adult life in the 1940s, you've heard about this resource. It was an attitude, a set of expectations -- the "glass half full" view of life.

I learned something about it from a practical joker and his wife -- John and Jeanne Kersten of Fairfield, Calif.,  my mom and dad.

The intrepid Kersten duo made its way east, miraculously avoiding the stampede of Iowans leaving for California at the time, finally to Fort Dodge, Iowa where Katie grew up.

Boy, I'll bet Katie endured some hardship, too, Spotty!

Yes, of course, grasshopper. Apparently she had to share a bedroom.

Oh, that's awful!

Yes, but just imagine what it was like for her siblings!

[whistling] Now there's hardship, Spotty.

Indeed.

Katie, like a lot of conservatives, especially boomer conservatives, channels the experience of her parents or theirs and thinks that she somehow lived those experiences herself. As a result of having experienced - even vicariously - hardship, Katie thinks she is entitled to preach on optimism, thrift, and sacrifice. Not Katie's sacrifice, naturally. That's only good for other people.

Governor Pepsodent is another one just like Katie. He likes to bring up his working class roots, but his was not a life of unremitting toil; it was his dad's.

Both Katie and Pepsodent are perfect examples of the unempathetic little scrubs that infest the Republican party today.

Technorati Tags: Katherine Kersten,Tim Pawlenty,Depression,hardship

JNP on MPR

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer was on Midday today at eleven. You can hear the program here. Among other things, JNP expressed his eagerness to debate with Al Franken.

Technorati Tags: Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer,Al Franken,US Senate debate

A classy ending

Here is Terri Bonoff's concession speech from the DFL Third District Congressional Convention last Saturday. Behind Terri you can see her husband, one of her children, and her campaign manager. The stage was full of red-shirted people, many of them misty eyed.

Bonoff made a call to those assembled to unite to win the general election in the fall.

Ashwin Madia made a great acceptance speech, too, which you can see here.

Technorati Tags: Terri Bonoff,Ashwin Madia,DFL endorsement

Sorry, Big E

Eric Pusey raises the question Why is Ron Erhardt attending DFL conventions?

Last Saturday, I saw Rep. Ron Erhardt (R-Bloomington) at the MN-03 convention. This is the second time I've seen him at a DFL event since the budget override. He also attended the SD41 convention at Bloomington Kennedy High School. I saw him talking to DFL Party Chair Brian Melendez last Saturday. What do y'all think they were chatting about? The weather?

It's a little late for Ron to defect as we have an endorsed candidate Kevin Staunton running against whoever wins the Republican primary ... if Ron's still going to run. Obviously, Brian wants DFLers to win in every district and would never do anything to weaken any DFLers chances, but I would love to be a fly on the wall if they two of them ever did meet for coffee or something like that.

Eric is going to draw some flak from an unexpected quarter here, but sigh, so be it.

First, that's Ron Erhardt (R-Cakeville), not Bloomington. Ron has represented Edina, or at least most of it, for nine terms. He is the second-most senior Republican in the Minnesota House, eclipsed only by Dennis Ozment who is retiring at the end of the term. Ron is a popular legislator who has represented the area since a lot of your readers were in middle school, Eric.

Ron Erhardt is the last pro-choice Republican in the Minnesota House. He has consistently voted against the anti-gay marriage amendment foolishness, and he is also an unwavering opponent of the gun lobby's agenda, including conceal and carry. Ron has been a thorn in the side of the likes of Governor Pepsodent, Steve Sviggum, Marty Seifert, and Michele Bachmann for a very long time. He's been in favor of a gas tax increase for many years.

Taking the vote he did to override the governor's veto of the transportation bill on the eve of the Republican endorsing convention in SD 41 was an act of considerable political courage. Erhardt knew he had a challenger for the endorsement, but he voted the way he did anyway.

Ron does not deserve the abuse you imply.

Second, Eric, you don't have a DFL endorsee in 41A: Spot does. Ron Erhardt running in the Republican primary or as an independent is a formidable opponent who would have a lot of appeal to DFLers who have known him for years.

Third, this is America, not Afghanistan. We do not make women, party officials, or anybody else wear burqas and avoid contact with unrelated persons. Brian Melendez can chat amiably - and in public - with Ron Erhardt or anyone else he chooses, and it is hardly a source of gossip or innuendo.

A few days ago, Avidor sent Spotty an image of the poster that was going to be handed out at the Taxpayers' League rally at the Capitol last Saturday. It is emblematic of the vitriol that has been directed at Erhardt by a party that he must hardly recognize anymore.

Technorati Tags: Ron Erhardt,Brian Melendez,Minnesota Taxpayers' League,gas tax,veto override

Al Franken on Midday - 4/14/08

Al Franken was interviewed on Midday at eleven o'clock today. You can listen here.

At about 19:20, a caller named "Michael" asked Al, given the fact that Al's corporation had incurred a penalty for unpaid workers' compensation in New York recently, how could he be trusted to make laws in the Senate?

Spotty, wasn't that the unemployed Republican political operative Michael Brodkorb?

Yes, grasshopper it was Michael Brodkorb. But remember, he just says that he is not employed by any candidate or the Republican party.

I guess he was taking an early lunch so that he was on break when he called in to MPR to gig Al. What was it, about eleven thirty or so?

That's about right, grasshopper.

Gosh, Spotty, Mr. Brodkorb is really good about doing this stuff on his own time, isn't he?

Yes, he is, grasshopper.

Al also got two questions about dodging debates with Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. The first one was by host Gary Eichten right at the beginning of the program, and the second was an email question read at about 39:00.

Al did say, in response to the second question, and rather grudgingly, Spot thought, that he would debate Jack in advance of the convention!

Spot has been harping on this for some time, and just for old time's sake, here's a little video he made urging Al to debate:

Jack, incidentally, will be on MPR tomorrow's Midday program: same time, eleven o'clock.

Technorati Tags: Al Franken,Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer,US Senator from Minnesota,Michael Brodkorb,candidate debate,DFL endorsement

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer at the 3rd District Convention

Spot had a terrible camera angle, but you'll still appreciate the speech.

Technorati Tags: Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer,US Senate Minnesota,DFL endorsement,Minnesota Third Congressional District Convention

Like no one saw this coming

Charter school getting threats for Islamic ties

An Inver Grove Heights charter school has received harassing and threatening calls in the wake of accusations that it blurs the line between religion and state by promoting Islam, the school's director said Friday.

The city's police are investigating and will put extra patrols in the area as a precaution, Police Chief Chuck Kleckner said. He said the school's director contacted the police Friday morning.

* * *

The school came under fire last month after Star Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten questioned whether TIZA, which receives public money, promotes the Muslim faith.

Well, it not only was the subject of a Kersten column last month, she went after it again on Wednesday of this week, and on Thursday she piled on a tlevison report about their lack of an American flag.

Of course Katie can't be held responsible for the acts of her readers. But when we once again see the flying monkeys of the right wing attack machine stalk and threaten children, advocate gunning down protesters in St. Paul and mail fake anthrax letters to prominent liberals in sick attempts to join the club, we can't help but ask ourselves when the vitriol whipped up by the likes of Kersten, Malkin, and Coulter starts to swerve into Radio Rwanda territory.

"Kindly tell us when you renewed your anti-Soviet criminal activity"

Don Siegelman

Georgia Thompson

Joseph Nacchio

The ACORN indictments

Dr. Cyril Wecht

Justice Oliver Diaz, Jr. and Paul Minor

Scott Horton recently reminded us of the role model here:

As every good Communist knows, justice is a tool of the class and of the party. It is used to bolster the party and its political control over the state. Individuals may therefore be prosecuted because they presented a threat to the rule of the party, or simply because it is politically expedient to do so.

More here.

(Title courtesy of Andrey Vyshinsky)

Al Franken: cybersquatter?

What is it, grasshopper?

Well, I was doing some Google searching about Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer for some, um, extra credit, and I found these:

http://www.jacknelsonpallmeyer.com/

http://www.jacknelsonpallmeyer.org/

That's nice, grasshopper.

But it's where they take you that's important, Spotty!

Oh?

Yeah. If you click on either one of those links, they take you to Al Franken's senate campaign web site.

You're right, grasshopper! That's a good catch. Tell Spot who did this.

That's the funny thing, Spot. If you do a WHOIS search on either one of them, the owner comes up as a dummy registrant: WhoisGuard Protected.

Maybe that's his name, grasshopper.

You think?

No, of course not.

Some day we'll have a lecture about campaign pranks. Maybe we'll even get Michael Brodkorb in as a guest speaker! Or, we could get the person who pulled this stunt. Grasshopper, why don't you ask Al Franken if it was somebody associated with his campaign?

Hey Al Franken! Did somebody associated with your campaign do this?

Technorati Tags: Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer,Al Franken,US Senate - Minnesota,DFL endorsement,campaign pranks

Nice column, Katie

[walking up and sitting on the corner of her desk in the newsroom] That was a nice column on Wednesday, Katie.

[looking up, startled] Really? Oh, I mean, thank you. I liked it, too, Mr. Tice. I did some digging to get that information about that Muslim school operating right under our noses!

Well, let's not get carried away. I know that you got that tip dropped in your lap by a recent College Republican chair at Winona State:

In the fall of 2005 [Amanda Getz] was elected Chair of the Winona College Republicans and was recently appointed as Vice Chair South.

I hardly think that matters!

I suppose not. Let me ask you, though, have you ever had a source or interviewed somebody who wasn't a Republican?

I'm sure that I have.

Okay, whatever. But you see, here's the deal. You got the ACLU of Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Education to look into this school for mixing religion and public dollars. The former I can sort of understand, but the latter is downright amazing.

Yeah, that was cool, wasn't it?

I suggest that you expand this into a real, well, crusade.

What do you mean?

There are lots of other charter schools that have a pretty obvious religious connection: Ascension Academy, New Visions, Higher Ground, New Spirit Primary, New Spirit Middle, the list goes on.

[looking up, shaken] But that's clearly different, Mr. Tice!

Oh, how?

Those sound like Christian schools.

I see your point. Never mind.

Update: A belated thump of the tail to Ollie Ox at A Bluestem Prairie.

Technorati Tags: Katherine Kersten,charter schools,TIZA Academy

Did you ever have to finally decide?

In the words of those philosopher kings from Spot's youth, the Lovin' Spoonful:

Did you ever have to make up your mind,
To pick up on one and leave the other behind?
It's not often easy, and not often kind;
Did you ever have to make up your mind?

Spot stuck his cold, wet nose in the Third Congressional District campaign for the DFL endorsement, but he's been quiet about it since Spot's guy dropped out of the race.

Until now.

Spot would be really happy to be represented by either Terri Bonoff or Ashwin Madia, especially when compared to the Republican offering, Erik "you kids get off my lawn" Paulsen.

But Spot thinks he would be better represented by Terri Bonoff. Spot endorses her for the DFL, er, endorsement and for Jim Ramstad's seat in Congress.

Why?

Having talked with them each multiple times, Spot believes that Terri is deeper on a couple of policy issues that are important to Spot: transportation and education. This flows perhaps naturally from Terri's committee assignments and work in the Minnesota Senate. She speaks knowledgeably and impressively about federal - state relations in these areas, especially when it comes to funding.

There is no question in Spot's mind that Terri can do a better job of sticking up for the District.

Terri is also more committed to getting out of Iraq sooner rather than later than Ash Madia is.

As an incumbent state senator, Terri Bonoff has been at a distinct disadvantage in the short campaign since Jim Ramstad announced his retirement. That's especially true since the legislature went back into session; she simply hasn't had the time to campaign that Ash Madia has had and represent her district, too. It has undoubtedly affected the time she has had to prepare, and to practice her speech making, too.

For example, she had to cancel an appearance at Drinking Liberally last week to stay and vote on amendments to what ultimately became the budget bill.

Which bring Spot to Steve Perry's snotty piece at Minnesota Monitor this afternoon. Perry cribs extensively from the carnival barker Michael Brodkorb in saying that Terri Bonoff's speaking style will cause her to lose the endorsement.

How many times the soothsayer Perry has actually heard Terri, he doesn't say. But Perry's little hit piece on the eve of the convention and parroting the Republican apparatchik Brodkorb ought to be dismissed the way you'd scrape doggy doo off your shoe.

Technorati Tags: Terri Bonoff,Ashwin Madia,Minnesota Third Congressional District,Minnesota Monitor,Steve Perry

Drinking Liberally tonight, well maybe

UPDATE: No Drinking Liberally tonight. That is all. Carry on.

Be sure to check the WCCO crawler for the latest information. (Kidding)

If the weather cooperates enough to permit DL tonight, remember that the regular time is six to nine, and the place is the 331 Club in northeast Minneapolis.

No candidate or other speaker lined up, but if you come, you may be able to see Spot and Hairy Truman execute an intricate pas de deux on their way to and from the mens' room.

Technorati Tags: Drinking Liberally,pas de deux,331 Club

Compare and contrast

Boys and girls, Spot wants you to go to The Uptake and see the convention stump speeches of Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer and Al Franken. See which one moves you.

Spot, you shot the JNP one, didn't you?

Yes, grasshopper, Spot did.

Technorati Tags: stump speeches,Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer,Al Franken,US Senate - Minnesota,DFL endorsement

The faithful sailor

On Tuesday, Scott Horton at the blog No Comment told again the story of the Navy's Lieutenant Commander Matthew Diaz, who served his country as a staff judge advocate at Guantánamo. Diaz was confronted with a moral dilemma: obey and uphold the chain of command or obey international humanitarian law. He chose the latter and has paid a heavy price for it. Here's how Horton describes it:

Matthew Diaz served his country as a staff judge advocate at Guantánamo. He watched a shameless assault on America’s Constitution and commitment to the rule of law carried out by the Bush Administration. He watched the introduction of a system of cruel torture and abuse. He watched the shaming of the nation’s uniformed services, with their proud traditions that formed the very basis of the standards of humanitarian law, now torn asunder through the lawless acts of the Executive. Matthew Diaz found himself in a precarious position—as a uniformed officer, he was bound to follow his command. As a licensed and qualified attorney, he was bound to uphold the law. And these things were indubitably at odds.

Diaz resolved to do something about it. He knew the Supreme Court twice ruled the Guantánamo regime, which he was under orders to uphold, was unlawful. In the Hamdan decision, the Court went a step further. In powerful and extraordinary words, Justice Kennedy reminded the Administration that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions was binding upon them, and that a violation could constitute a criminal act. One senior member of the Bush legal team, informed of the decision over lunch, was reported to have turned “white as a sheet” and to have immediately excused himself. For the following months, Bush Administration lawyers entered into a frenzied discussion of how to protect themselves from criminal prosecution.

Diaz talked about it. Here's what happened:

Diaz was charged, tried and convicted for disclosing “secrets.” For the Bush Administration, any information which would be politically embarrassing or harmful to it is routinely classified “secret.” In this fashion the Administration believes it can use criminal sanctions against those who disclose information it believes will be politically damaging. The list of detainees at Guantánamo, which by law was required to be disclosed, was classified as “secret.”

Diaz spent six months in prison and left it bankrupt and without a job. In addition to his sentence, the Pentagon is working aggressively to have Diaz stripped of his law license so he will not be able to practice his profession. The Bush Administration has sought to criminalize, humiliate and destroy Diaz. Its motivation could not be clearer: Diaz struck a blow for the rule of law. And nothing could be more threatening to the Bush Administration than this.

Diaz was recognized for his courage to speak out:

On Thursday in the National Press Club in Washington, a crowd gathered to witness the presentation of the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling to Lieutenant Commander Matthew Diaz.

You can read Horton's entire post at the link above, boys and girls. Spot urges you to do so. You can read Horton's contrast of Matthew Diaz with the author of the "torture memo," John Yoo. Perhaps for Spot's purpose, however, the most important paragraph is the highlighted one. This is the view of everyone, really, that Spot knows, save one.

Technorati Tags: Matthew Diaz,Scott Horton,John Yoo,Ridenhour Prize,Geneva Conventions,Common Article Three,international humanitarian law

Outside agitator!

Spot had never heard of this skin-headed, jack-booted radio thug before before Avidor, Andy Birkey, and Coleen Rowley got Spot's attention.

Wow! Who is this guy, Spot?

Let's let Andy Birkey, writing at Minnesota Monitor, tell us:

The Twin Cities' newest conservative talk show host has an idea for managing the thousands of protesters coming to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in September: machine guns.

Chris Baker, formerly a talk radio host in Houston, took over the morning spot on KTLK in early March. On Friday, he took issue with the debate among Minneapolis law enforcement personnel as to whether police should limit the use of Tasers and pepper spray on protesters in Minneapolis (link to audio file). Baker's suggestion is violent suppression of what he calls "stinky protesters" that are part of "an industry funded by billionaires and communist organizations (and) they are well-coordinated and incredibly dangerous."

Baker continued: "So we've been talking about police protection during the upcoming convention when all those stinky protesters are coming. There seems to be a big debate over whether or not police officers will be able to wear helmets, carry shields, use pepper spray and Tasers on this crowd. You know, I'll tell you what works on a crowd like this -- a machine gun, that always works very well." [italics are Spot's]

Andy continues, quoting Baker:

"You must have order, you cannot have a civilized society without order and if that means cracking a few skulls, so be it," said Baker. "A good ole boy network is what you need and hand out some ax handles."

Peace advocate and former FBI agent Coleen Rowley heard the violent rhetoric on Friday. "It doesn't take an expert on the First Amendment to recognize that suggesting the 'good ol' boy network' hand out ax handles and machine guns be used to mow a crowd down comes close to inciting violence," she wrote at the Huffington Post. "This inflammatory rhetoric looks no different than the reason we are not allowed to falsely yell 'fire' in a crowded theater."

Spot thinks because Baker spoke these words last week, and the convention isn't until late in the summer, his rant is probably protected by the First Amendment, in that it doesn't have the necessary quality of immediate incitement necessary for a criminal offense. During the convention, or in the immediate run up to it? Well, that would be a different thing.

Ironically enough, Baker is probably protected by the same thing that will allow peaceful protest during the convention, and the thing that permits Spot to say that he thinks Baker is a skin-headed, jack-booted thug!

Chris Baker has had a promising career in radio ever since he caught that break working for Radio Rwanda.

You made that up, didn't you, Spot?

Yes, grasshopper.

Technorati Tags: Chris Baker,hate radio,Coleen Rowley,First Amendment

One man wrecking ball

Alternate title: John Yoo - the gift that keeps on giving

Spot and many other commentators have discussed John Yoo's torture memo. The memo contains in footnote ten a reference to another memo authored by John Yoo - and Robert Delahunty - about the application of the Fourth Amendment to "domestic military operations":

[The entire Yoo memo is linked in the link above.]

Here's what the Associated Press said about the footnote and the memorandum referred to in it:

WASHINGTON — For at least 16 months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001, the Bush administration believed that the Constitution's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures on U.S. soil didn't apply to its efforts to protect against terrorism.

That view was expressed in a secret Justice Department legal memo dated Oct. 23, 2001. The administration on Wednesday stressed that it now disavows that view.

The October 2001 memo was written at the request of the White House by John Yoo, then the deputy assistant attorney general, and addressed to Alberto Gonzales, the White House counsel at the time. The administration had asked the department for an opinion on the legality of potential responses to terrorist activity.

The 37-page memo is classified and has not been released. Its existence was disclosed Tuesday in a footnote of a separate secret memo, dated March 14, 2003, released by the Pentagon in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.

This earlier memorandum apparently gave the go ahead for the NSA's warrantless wiretap program:

Exactly what domestic military action was covered by the October memo is unclear. But federal documents indicate that the memo relates to the National Security Agency's Terrorist Surveillance Program, or TSP.

That program intercepted phone calls and e-mails on U.S. soil, bypassing the normal legal requirement that such eavesdropping be authorized by a secret federal court. The program began after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and continued until Jan. 17, 2007, when the White House resumed seeking surveillance warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

John Yoo is a one man constitutional wrecking ball.

Technorati Tags: John Yoo,Fourth Amendment,torture memo,Robert Delahunty

Ignorance can kill

On Sunday - naturally - Katie came out against sex education. Katie is in favor of the "keep your pants on, Missy" approach to the problem:

Minnesota's soaring rate of sexually transmitted disease [STD] is in the news again. At the national level, a recent study found that 25 percent of 14- to 19-year-old girls have at least one of four common STDs.

The solution? Enlightened folks tell us it's more sex education, counseling and treatment. They call for more tax-funded initiatives such as a $1.3 million bill for screening and public education recently considered by the Minnesota Legislature.

But few are talking about the real reason for the epidemic: too many kids are having sex at too young an age.

And Katie has the statistics to back it up:

This idea [that kids are, in Katie's words, "going to do it"] is one of the biggest cons of our generation. At least one group understands this -- the 53 percent of high school students who reported that they had never had sexual intercourse in a 2005 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Empowering? Give me a break

The con about youth sex is rooted in the myth behind the sexual revolution: that sex without restraints -- doing what you feel -- is both liberating and fundamental to human happiness. But in our sex-saturated culture, the opposite is true for many young people. It's far from liberating to be at the mercy of frenzied adolescent impulses.

"High school" encompasses about the ages of fourteen to eighteen. Without looking at the data, Spot is quite confident in saying that the curve of the sexually-experienced increases when plotted against the age of the student.

Well, duh, Spotty. The likelihood that somebody has had sex increases as they get older? Thanks for the insight.

Don't be impertinent, grasshopper. Spot is just saying to consider the true meaning of the statistic that Katie quotes. For example if no one under seventeen in high school had sex, it would mean that everyone over that age had sex. And one has to wonder what percentage of those in the haven't column would be in the those who have column, given the opportunity.

But Spot, doesn't advocating abstinence and keeping kids in the dark about it discourage sexual activity?

Apparently not:

A survey of more than 2,000 teenagers carried out by a research company on behalf of Congress found that the half of the sample given abstinence-only education displayed exactly the same predilection for sex as those who had received conventional sex education in which contraception was discussed.

So then, boys and girls, here's the difference between Katie and Spot: Katie is apparently okay with the extra unplanned pregnancies, extra abortions, loss of fertility and maybe the loss of life that results from ignorance; she may even think it is just punishment for the offenders. Spot does not. Not for his pups; not for the neighbors' pups; not even for Katie's pups.

Technorati Tags: Katherine Kersten,sex education,abstinence education,sexually-transmitted diseases

Wanted: John Yoo

WANTED

John Yoo

A/K/A Professor Organ Failure. Known to associates as "Vlad." Yoo is wanted (or will be) by international criminal authorities for the commission of war crimes.

Gosh, Spotty, that was dramatic. Do you really think he is?

It doesn't matter what Spot thinks; there are some pretty good commentators out there that think he is. Professor Organ Failure is the principal author of the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel's memorandum (Part One and Part Two), released last week, holding the view that harsh interrogation of detainees in the warron terra did not violate US law or the Geneva Convention.

Among other reasons, Professor Organ Failure said that such trifles as US law and the Geneva Convention did not apply to the president because:

It is also a canon of construction that laws of general applicability are not read to apply to the sovereign. In United States v. Nardone, 302 U.S. 379 (1937), the Supreme Court explained its application: (1) where it ''would deprive the sovereign of a recognized or established prerogative title or interest," id. at 383; or (2) "where a reading which would include such officers would work obvious absurdity[,]" id. at 384. As the Court explained, "[a] classical instance" of the deprivation of a recognized or established prerogative title or interest "is the exemption of the state from the operation of general statutes of limitation." Id. at 383.

Here, the application of these statutes to the conduct of interrogations of unlawful combatants would deprive the sovereign of a recognized prerogative. Historically, nations have been free to treat unlawful combatants as they wish, and in the United States this power has been vested in the President through the Commander-in-Chief Clause.

This is on page 15 of the memorandum. POF is full of canons of construction, and in the end reminds Spot of the song he used to hear on the Morning Show on MPR: "I Am My Own Grandpa." As others have pointed out, Yoo was obviously trying to justify a position, not give legal advice. Yoo is a dangerous proponent of the "unitary executive," a notion that the president can do anything in the name of national security.

Glenn Greenwald has a very good summary of the Yoo memo at John Yoo's war crimes posted at Salon. Here's a nugget that Glenn picked out Yoo's feat of legerdemain:

If a government defendant were to harm an enemy combatant during an interrogation in a manner that might arguably violate a criminal prohibition, he would be doing so in order to prevent further attacks on the United States by the al Qaeda terrorist network. In that case, we believe that he could argue that the executive branch's constitutional authority to protect the nation from attack justified his actions.

Oh, Spotty! There must be some limit on what the president, or someone acting on his behalf, can do?

Well, if there is, Professor Organ Failure hasn't seen it yet:

In other words:

Dahlia's [Lithwick, another writer at Slate] aptly summarizes this just-released memo's constitutional conclusion: "if the president authorizes it, it isn't illegal."

Law professor Jack Balkin summarized why Yoo probably won't be taking any foreign vacations in the future:

Those responsible for the interrogation of Detainee 063 face a real risk of investigation if they set foot outside the United States. Article 4 of the torture convention criminalizes “complicity” or “participation” in torture, and the same principle governs violations of Common Article 3.

There are a number of countries, including several in Europe, that assert the principle of "universal jurisdiction" to try war criminals.

This is among the sorriest chapters in American legal history. It would be entirely fitting if John Yoo had to stand in the dock somewhere and try to justify what he has wrought.

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