A nation that has already gone ahead and sacrificed its soul out of a chicken-shit fear that men it has (not always, but almost always wrongfully, btw) held without charge or trial for over eight years and counting “might some day somehow do something bad”… apparently isn’t very good at judging bad things done by actual bad people here… certainly when said people are white, well-educated and well-connected… Surprise, surprise, that Dr. Amy Bishop, the (accused) homicidal maniac who massacred the committee that denied her tenure at the University of Alabama Huntsville killing three and wounding three others, had previously.....

One wishes simply that I could say something about the Obama Administration other than “I’m disappointed, but not surprised.” And thus, the apparent decision to scrap civilian federal court trials of 9-11 plot suspects in New York, and quite possibly, relegate the trials of Ron Jeremy Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and four others to military commissions altogether. The apparent political subtext seems to involve hanging Attorney General Eric Holder out to dry, by blaming him for the White House’s decision to use the federal courts for its show trials in the first place, and of course, to propose the show trials...

Sarah Palin, proudly addressing her peeps (Southern White men) at the “tea party convention” suggests she would certainly consider running for President in 2012. The obvious question becomes just how much the Obama people would be paying her to do so, as she already bears her share of responsibility for the fact that he’s the President now, and let’s face it: Tina Fey isn’t going anywhere. That said, of course, note that as far as media accounts go, and this, of course, includes “even the liberal New York Times,” the only relevant places on the political spectrum are “right-wing” and...

For those wondering, “Hey TD… why the radio silence?” The short answer is that my lengthy run of luck that unsupported Movable Type 2.64 would remain viable for the rest of my time on God’s green Earth (or at least God’s green Blogosphere) came to an end, with an “upgrade” to the servers on my (now former) host company. Thanks to the magic of my friends at Blog Consulting, we’re back on Movable Type Pro… which, hopefully, will now keep up with our new and improved server. Obviously, for those who missed my commentary on the state of the union,...

You don’t need me to tell you that life isn’t fair. But some things just… well… “Unfair” doesn’t do justice to… a magintude 7.0 earthquake hitting Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere… seems a bitter pill, indeed. You might try contributing to the Red Cross, or UNICEF, or Doctors Without Borders, or the reputable charity of your choice. Let’s do what we can. And, in further proof that life isn’t fair, 104 year old strongman Joe Rollino was struck and killed by a car here in Brooklyn. One of the most popular Coney Island strong men, he was...

This absurdly cold Saturday (it started around 20 F here in NYC, but with 25-35 mph winds swirling…felt colder), we treat you to two items that, if you think that having a Bill of Rights is “a good thing,” might just may make your blood run colder still. The first (h/t Candace) concerns a sudden “controversy” over what heretofore hadn’t been particularly “controversial,” that being, the seemingly routine release of two Guantanamo detainees who have been determined to have done nothing wrong (and hence, have been wrongly held for eight years), said release now being “controversial” for no reason other...

We are rapidly coming up to January 22, 2010, the day that President Barack Obama will have unquestionably broken a promise that, at the time he made it anyway, was 100% within his power to keep, that being to “close Guantanamo within one year.” The thing with the Guantanamo promise, aside from candidate Obama’s stand on the issue having been a selling point for many rubes and suckers (such as myself) to support his candidacy, is that it was an actual concrete promise on which we can clearly measure accountability, rather than the nebulous (and ultimately meaningless) “hope and change”...

It may be a new decade, but that’s no reason not to go to a good old throw-back here at TTD, and what better way to start a new decade than with a nostalgic revisit to “Saturdays with Pravda” to this piece telling us that… wait for it… over 60% of Russians are nostalgic for the Soviet Union. For many Russians, guaranteed housing and employment and cheap food (even if variety wasn’t tremendous) seem better than the rough and tumble of capitalism where (this is just crazy talk)… many people don’t live quite as well… but a few people are...

On this first day of the new year, and the new decade (and, as always, “the first day of the rest of your life” and all), I’ll just link to the Grey Lady’s annual salute to the revelers in Times Square. Others might note that thousands upon thousands upon thousands of New Yorkers and others ignored Dick Cheney’s consistent message of doom and gloom about “security threats” and went on with the celebration, but I’m just going to go with the “life-affirming” thing… people just want to come out and celebrate the passage of time, and express their hopes and...

I see that this time last year, I was much more upbeat than I am now. Maybe it was like finding a shiny new penny… so exciting, until you realize that it has no buying power. Or perhaps it was like embarking on that long-awaited vacation, before the unpleasant reality that “it may be fun while it lasts (or perhaps it won’t be), but in any event it’s not really going to change anything once you get back to the usual humdrum or pain or whatever it is that defines your life.” But it proved to be something like that....