John Yoo was a rather obscure fellow and perhaps he is still. But he is a creature from another age; an academic jurist. This used to be the sort of person who became Attorney General or a judge at some high level. Much like Kenneth Starr, he is a law geek like the armies of math geeks that launch and recover our rockets. Like Kenneth Starr, Mr Yoo found himself with a controversial task. Mr Starr’s commission would harm a sitting Democratic President. Mr Yoo’s would assist a sitting Republican President so neither controversy is surprising.

Yoo is the drafter of a series of memos from the Bush Justice Department that provided legal guidance for interrogating GWOT prisoners. Famously said memos found waterboarding was a-okay as well as a variety of other menacing actions that fell far short of anything from Hellraiser or even Shawshank. The usual quarters complained about this; the alliance of non-disbarred lawyers, media types with dreams of book deals and  ambitious Democrats that always sees America as Snidely Whiplash, and everyone else as a chick tied to a railroad track. Or they do so until there is a Democrat in office. [Read more →]

Tags: on the law, politics & government by Ken Watson
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The former Speaker of the House and longtime Georgia celebritician Newt Gingrich has announced that he will run for the Presidency in ’12. Well, he hasn’t actually announced it, he has announced that he will announce it in a few days. This is classic Gingrich, for those too fortunate to remember much about Bill Clinton’s famous antagonist. Even long out of office he routinely conducts himself as if he had the media footprint of Justin Bieber, or back in da day, Clinton himself. Newt is always certain that we have been waiting for word from him, on our politics and economics or on his plans for either a new novel or a national campaign. Once he has his tie snugged up, then we may all begin. And he certainly has some claim to a swelled opinion of his own importance. He is (as his suspiciously friendly wiki reflects) a college professor, author and historian which does at least set him apart from other Legislators who are almost 100% attorneys. [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government by Ken Watson
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The first rule of timetravel is don’t touch anything, not so it would show, anyhow. Sure strangling the infant Hitler would be fun and make for some great souvenirs but your dream vacation will raise a Super-Hitler who does NOT helpfully off himself in the storeroom. Therefore when you return, things will be different; horrendously different if The Twilight Zone has taught us anything. You yourself may just go pop! like a soap bubble or if you haven’t kept your parents from meeting you will find other disappointments; Hansen was a boy band. You just said, no. And that night when you realized in the nick of time? Sorry, now it was a bit too late.

Timetravel, like salt and cooking oil, is hazardous, so must be used sparingly and responsibly. Like these commodities it should be and is controlled by the federal government. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, trusted media & news by Ken Watson
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Walter Cronkite was a towering figure of the media for many decades. His catchphrase was in his sign-off. And that’s the way it was on whatever date. It is somewhat curious that he seems to be addressing archivists of the future rather than his live viewers of the evening but there you have it. He declared the first draft of the day’s history done and in the can. A not-young Dan Rather was groomed to replace him and no doubt he took it seriously, especially as the years passed and Cronkite proved remarkably durable both in his ability to show up and read the news and his prominence in the public mind. Rather was certainly prominent himself, anchoring every electi0n and hurricane. He became known for folksy, cryptic aphorisms supposedly drawn from his Texas youth. If a frog had side pockets he would carry a handgun. That sort of thing. Once Cronkite did actually relinquish his chair Dan searched for some time for his own tagline. One experiment was a single, solemnly intoned word. Courage.

Whether he was observing Courage, practicing Courage or pleading for Courage was never clear. And while that might have been appropriate for a newscast absorbed with war, famine or plague it didn’t quite fit when the last story of the night was a human interest fluff piece about a skydiving shar pei or somesuch. Courage, Wrinkles. Courage. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, trusted media & news by Ken Watson
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Tags: politics & government, terror & war by Alexander Thorburn Hoffman
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The 2012 election cycle kicks-off tonight with the first Republican presidential primary debate–an event that will surely be one in a long line of platitude-a-paloosas to come from all parties and all office seekers–so I want to make a prediction. Given the recent success of the Navy SEAL operation that killed Osama, and that the unofficial motto of the SEALs is reportedly  “Failure is not an option,” we’re going to be hearing this particular phrase a lot in the coming months in reference to the need for government action to solve our country’s ills, both real and imagined.

The meaning, of course, of this particular platitude is latent, and lies deep within the ideology of the speaker. So, as a service to the reader of When Falls The Coliseum, I present this handy list of latent meanings:

Republican: Failure is not an option…but if you fail, it’s your fault.
Democrat: Failure is not an option…but if you fail, it’s NOT your fault.
Libertarian: Failure is not an option…but it ought to be.
Constitutionalist: Failure is not an option…it’s a right.
Green: Failure is not an option…it’s a tree falling in the woods with no one to hear.
Socialist: Failure is not an option…it’s a utopia.

Tags: politics & government by Jay Baldwin
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Let’s say that Barack Obama dons some gay apparel, something like a viking hat and chainmail, hoists Osama’s crab-nibbled melon over his own and runs out on the West Lawn crying out like Braveheart, “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” This has a predictable effect, rallying the entire country to the cause of Scottish nationalism, but also whatever other plans the President has cribbed on his ipad. The hottentots in the House and elsewhere fall in to line. The institutions of international finance are also well impressed by this display of leading from the side yard; they promise (and prove to have the ability) to buy up all the T-bills we can print at around 3%. For the most part there is no effect on the media, except that Fox is given over to the closest thing white people have to Obama, Mitt Romney, making it as tractable as a gelded pony. The Bush Era Tax Rates die of natural causes next year, engorging federal revenues while not harming economic activity in the least. Likewise FICA taxes rise to no complaints or ill effect. The regulations of the insurance industry have exactly the intended effect and no other leaving it exactly as prosperous and powerful as Obama wants. In short, let us make this titanic and diverse stipulation that is far, far better than any reasonable Best Case Scenario and still we can confidently predict that Obamacare (or whatever you would like to name it…. Husseincare? How’s that sound?) will fail utterly, catastrophically and grotesquely. And we can blame it on Charlie Sheen. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, politics & government by Ken Watson
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Saying that President Obama doesn’t deserve credit because he didn’t fire the shot that took him out is like saying bin Laden is not responsible for 9/11 because he didn’t fly the planes. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, terror & war by Jody Lane
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Within the last 2 years, President Obama told CIA director Leon Panetta to make the search and capture of Bin Laden the top priority in Afghanistan. As impractical and zealous as that might have seemed, it just feels right today. Bin Laden might not have been the logistical or intellectual force within Al-Qaeda at the time of his death that he was before, but he was certainly a symbolic and inspirational force. And as the lush compound that provided him refuge shows, he might still have been a financial force too.
[Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, terror & war by Robert O'Hara
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America breathes a sigh of relief. In far off Pakistan US forces have finally caught up with the world’s most wanted man, Ossama bin Laden. It is a benchmark in the McCain Presidency that even many supporters now believe is half over.

Spontaneous celebrations in Times Square and elsewhere were a shot in the arm for the Administration that has seemed unable to put a foot right lately. Mired as the nation is in a new war in Libya and a lesser action in Syria dubbed a “forceful resoration of order” by some anonymous and perhaps now unemployed McCain flack, the response was heartfelt. In front of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, John Sidney McCain took the photograph that will certainly define his career if not his lifetime, mingling with boisterous crowds at midnight, casually dressed, and draped in flags by the crowds to the consternation of the Secret Service. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, terror & war by Ken Watson
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As far as I can tell, it is still public national policy that we are NOT aiming at Khaddafi. But we are shooting in his general direction.

Tags: politics & government, terror & war by Ken Watson
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In the most recent issue of Action Comics, the fictional superhero character Superman, who flies around in a blue leotard with red underwear on the outside and a big red cape, renounces his US citizenship.

The key scene takes place in “The Incident,” a short story in Action Comics #900 written by David S. Goyer with art by Miguel Sepulveda. In it, Superman consults with the President’s national security advisor, who is incensed that Superman appeared in Tehran to non-violently support the protesters demonstrating against the Iranian regime, no doubt an analogue for the recent real-life protests in the Middle East. However, since Superman is viewed as an American icon in the DC Universe as well as our own, the Iranian government has construed his actions as the will of the American President, and indeed, an act of war.

Superman is going to finally take a real stand. At the UN.

Superman made his first appearance in the first issue of Action Comics in 1938. Since that time, the United States government has rounded up and jailed people because of their Japanese heritage, dropped atomic bombs on Japan, knowingly infected Guatemalans with STDs to study their effects, fought against the civil rights of its own black citizens, entered the Vietnam war based on the “Gulf of Tonkin” lie, used chemical warfare against the Vietnamese, provided millions of dollars to Middle Eastern dictators in the name of “stability,” and fought a “war on drugs” that allows government agents to break into peoples’ homes and is directly causing the deaths of tens of thousands of people all over the world every year. Our current president has engaged the United States in yet another war in the Middle East, and claims to have the power to kill US citizens without a trial. And that’s just off the top of my head. [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, politics & government by Ricky Sprague
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Tags: politics & government, travel & foreign lands by Alexander Thorburn Hoffman
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So what else happened Wednesday? Believe it or not, there was a tiny smudge of good news revealed at another of the historical firsts that are coming so fast and furious that the day’s incidence of historical firsts is itself a historical first. This first was the first ever press conference by the Federal Reserve. Sure, you’ve seen Ben Bernanke on the news before squawking about this or that but this was the first time the Fed apparatus has ever had a presser just like Barack Obama or Orly Taitz where it is convened for the communication of specific info with questions attending. This might seem to be a rather threadbare “first” until you understand that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve and even the dozens of lesser figures who make monetary decisions have a power to influence markets that, believe me, they often wish they did not. The business press is always rumbling with the seismic analysis of Bernanke’s footsteps. How does he look? Chipper? Dour? Conscious? Did he get the thai chicken or a steak? Is he out shopping for new suits? Custom? Please god, tell me he’s not buying off the rack!

Fortunes are made and lost by the labors of the business paparazzi because Bernanke’s whims make dollars worth more, or less. Overnight. Like Midas, he turns things to gold. And also kills. [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government by Ken Watson
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Economics has long been referred to as the “dismal science” because, well, most people find it all so dry. Some creative economists over at George Mason University and elsewhere are challenging that view and having a little fun making rap videos full of economic lessons. I’ve linked the most recent installment below.

Granted, if you’re completely clueless of the arguments they’re making, a lot won’t make sense, but they’re fun to watch regardless.

Fight of the Century: Keynes vs Hayek (Rd 2)

Tags: art & entertainment, politics & government by Jay Baldwin
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The racist loons infesting the Republicans and the Republic have truly achieved a frightening prominence. Consider these impolite and impolitic questions they are raining upon our beloved President:

First they demand a Full Name… FULL! With the middle, any suffixes, prefixes, titles, assignments, hyphenations… the full boat. The date of birth, place of birth and social security number. This the President must supply without fail. This may not seem too audacious but just you wait.

Then they demand a listing of all relations, living and deceased and their citizenship status. Stepfathers and mothers are as requisit as those who actually contributed a chromosome. The President’s well known herd of half brothers and sisters left by his father across every land and nation you could name is attacked, obviously and maliciously with this outrageous inquisition.

Then these freaks go from deranged to depraved with the following demands: [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, race & culture by Ken Watson
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What’s the Hillary Special at Popeye’s? Two large thighs, two small breasts and a left wing. If that doesn’t take you back, brother, you were never there. Yes, the grizzled Secretary of State now enamored of Assad Jr as a “reformer” as well as the spontaneous human combustion of anonymous goatherds in Afghanistan (and Pakistan, too!) was once far more true to the politics of her loopy commencement address at Wellesley that received a Stalin-esque ovation from that crowd lasting seven minutes. The crowning glory of her political career (before she was elected to shit) was to be Hillarycare; a massive overhaul and expansion of Medicare/Medicaid that would inundate medical delivery systems as we knew them in the barbaric days of 1993, leaving that segment of our economy socialized in all but name. Sound familiar? But Hillary became the Centrist once a certain Senator from Illinois maneuvered into that sliver of atmosphere existing between her Left and the outright commies. Hillary had sought total control through the doctors: the practice of medicine outside the embrace of Hillarycare was to be a criminal offense. Obama stole a march by making criminals out of any patients escaping, however fitfully, the smothering grasp of Obamacare. Of such distinctions are great careers made. [Read more →]

Tags: ends & odd, politics & government, trusted media & news by Ken Watson
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I’m not going to review the film. That’s been done and done and done.

And it’s true, the movie is just ok. The characters are one dimensional. The script is overly didactic. The cinematography made-for-TVish.

Instead I’m going to share my reaction to the film, my emotional reaction: frankly, it depressed me. Not because of my disappointment in the film’s quality, or because of the film’s all-too-real dystopian setting.

No, it depressed me because, unlike most movies wherein one must rely on the suspension of disbelief to accept the hero’s actions, this movie portrays heroes acting in ways many of us could achieve. It depressed me because I haven’t started a successful business; therefore, I haven’t benefited society as much as maybe I could have. It depressed me because I haven’t honored or appreciated as I should those entrepreneurs who have.

The bottomline message of Atlas Shrugged part 1 is that if you want to help the poor, start a business; create wealth; create jobs. If you haven’t done this, it might depress you; but don’t assuage your depression by supporting government redistribution schemes. Do it by encouraging and supporting entrepreneurs and small business owners–and thank them for their service just as you do those men and women in our armed forces. They deserve it.

Tags: art & entertainment, movies, politics & government by Jay Baldwin
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Tags: environment & nature, politics & government by Alexander Thorburn Hoffman
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Aren’t Hall and Oates gay? I think so though perhaps not with each other. By acclamation Hall is just out of Oates’ league. But whatever the domestic situation these two men’s men have written passionately about women for decades. This one is from ’73 and we all remember many others. Was homophobia so rampant back then that only Freddy Mercury could openly flaunt his glory in denim chaps? Maybe. Maybe Sarah Smile was really Sammy Slim. Or maybe it is that everyone with a serious claim to humanity pretty instinctively imbues all things valuable, fragile, volatile and tragic with a female animating force. Ships get the treatment. Hurricanes did for years until some pansy somewhere decided either women were being insulted or men were being slighted and gave us Hurricanes Andrew and Gustav but it fools none but the  foolish. We have Mother Earth and the naked Muses. Those in the habit of cursing or coaxing their cars almost always see them as female. America, of course, is the Big She; the land of milk and honey to a starving globe. The mother. The teacher. The sister. The whore. And baby, she’s gone. [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, politics & government by Ken Watson
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