home

Friday Open Thread

By Jeralyn, Section Blog Related
Posted on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 12:39:35 PM EST
Tags: (all tags)
Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit

As I am in court, literally as I type this, and will be for the rest of the day, here's an open thread for you.

As for how to get wireless in federal court, it's by using a WAN network through Cingular rather than a WLAN network. Or something like that. All I know is it works.

< No Bomb at Starbucks | Journalist Complains About Exercise of Free Speech >

  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


    • Display: Sort:
    Friday Open Thread | 42 comments (42 topical)
    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#1)
    by ras on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 12:39:45 PM EST
    Remember how the Left opposed Alito cuzza the CAP report that said, in part:
    "People nowadays just don't seem to know their place. Everywhere one turns blacks and hispanics are demanding jobs simply because they're black and hispanic..."
    That's the one Ted Kennedy quoted so earnestly. Turns out if was a satire. Anyone heard Kennedy's apology yet? Man, he must really be embarrassed.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#2)
    by roger on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 12:56:19 PM EST
    Wow! They wont even let us get near the Fed Courthouse with a laptop! No cell phones either.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#3)
    by Dadler on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 12:57:07 PM EST
    Ras, I'd love to read the whole essay. Can you find any link to it? I couldn't. The excerpt and the word of D'Souza (not my fave, as you might expect) just aren't quite enough for me to really get an idea of whether this was OBVIOUSLY satire or just really BAD satire or just WHAT it is at all. I'm assuming someone on the right will be digging up the whole thing shortly. But I still don't know how Kennedy's liver keeps waking up every morning. Maybe he's got the "Six Million Dollar Man" model.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#4)
    by roger on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 12:58:31 PM EST
    Ras, Turns out today that the editor CLAIMS that it was satire. Real funny! Oh yeah! Bet he's a riot at the KKK Klam bake!

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#5)
    by ras on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 01:09:09 PM EST
    Dadler, I don't have a copy of the whole thing, tho I casually expect someone will scan it into a pdf in the near future, presuming whatsisname who owns the docs (and who gave TK premission to review them) hasn't packed 'em back up into a trunk in his attic already. BTW, is it just me, or does anyone else look at all this stuff and think, "Twenty year old records from a defunct org? Man, I can't even find this month's Visa bill! What sort of person keeps crap like that?" Disorganizedly Yours, ras

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#6)
    by Edger on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 01:15:00 PM EST
    Bush Authorized Domestic Spying Before 9/11 Friday 13 January 2006 The National Security Agency advised President Bush in early 2001 that it had been eavesdropping on Americans during the course of its work monitoring suspected terrorists and foreigners believed to have ties to terrorist groups, according to a declassified document [PDF]. The NSA's vast data-mining activities began shortly after Bush was sworn in as president and the document contradicts his assertion that the 9/11 attacks prompted him to take the unprecedented step of signing a secret executive order authorizing the NSA to monitor a select number of American citizens thought to have ties to terrorist groups. More...


    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#7)
    by Patrick on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 01:15:22 PM EST
    Does anyone here think the intel about Iran and their "nucular" program is false? It seems to be a common held belief worldwide that they are developing a WMD program.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 01:15:25 PM EST
    Why would a conservative organization satirize a conservative view?

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 01:17:57 PM EST
    Does anyone here think the intel about Iran and their "nucular" program is false? I don't. They definitely have nuclear plants in the country, but they insist they're for energy purposes only.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#10)
    by swingvote on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 01:24:58 PM EST
    I asked this question very late on the Wednesday open thread, so I'm going to repeat it here, with apologies. Did anyone here frequent the old CNN "community" comments site?

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#11)
    by roy on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 01:36:33 PM EST
    Does anyone here think the intel about Iran and their "nucular" program is false?
    Let's hope it is false. The UN is being candy-arsed again, and Bush & Friends don't have the clout to pull another preemtive strike even with real evidence of a threat. Israel might do it, what with the Iranian leadership's stated goal of wiping out Israel, but the UN would smack Israel down for it. We might be watching a bunch of UN beurocrats pretend to be surprised at the glowing crater that used to be Jerusalem in about five years.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#12)
    by Dadler on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 01:44:43 PM EST
    Another school shooting, lest we forget about THAT terror trend in the homeland. thehim wrote, Why would a conservative organization satirize a conservative view? That's one of the things about that opening few lines that gave me pause. Still, gotta read the whole thing to have any real idea.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#13)
    by kdog on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 01:48:59 PM EST
    We might be watching a bunch of UN beurocrats pretend to be surprised at the glowing crater that used to be Jerusalem in about five years.
    I hope the Iranians love their children too. Common logic says the Iranians will try like hell to make a nuke, that is for certain. We got 'em, we gave 'em to Israel. Does anyone expect Iran to accept a sunservient position on the world stage? Check out the experience of one pro poker player trying to fly with his tools. Since when is it illegal or suspicous to carry currency?

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#14)
    by Patrick on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 01:50:25 PM EST
    Dadler, Sad story.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#15)
    by Patrick on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 01:52:53 PM EST
    If you can't laugh at yourself, then you take yourself too seriously.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#16)
    by ras on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 01:58:46 PM EST
    Prediction: Bush will ratchet up the pressure on Iran publicly, cuz it will increase the Iranian peoples' support for a coming democratic coup (i.e. wanna die for your oppressors, or live free? The mullahs low support will drop even lower, esp if the pressure lasts for a few weeks). 2nd prediction: US Special Ops are already doing in Iran what they did so successfully just before the initial invasion of Iraq: buying off local power-brokers. Just a hunch. 3rd prediction: if a coup fails, then militarily taking out Iran's nuclear capability is Plan B. Dadler, Why would a conservative organization satirize a conservative view? Because they were satirizing the stereotype that others held of them, an old technique. Carrying it to farce is supposed to hilite the silliness of the initial stereotype. Think of comedians like Flip Wilson, for example. History, however, has shown this to be much more difficult to do than it seems: e.g. Jonathan Swift (a recognized fine satirist in his own right) and the trouble he got in for satirizing that the starving Irish should eat their kids. Whops. Satire is intellectual humor. When used for emotional issues where thinking can be secondary, it often falls flat.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#17)
    by ltgesq on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 02:00:34 PM EST
    wireless? wireless? You dog! I was trying a case in a tiny town where the judge did a small claims case during lunch, and then did a sentencing on a criminal confinement case while my jury was deliberating a verdict in a meth possession case. I had to drive 18 miles to eat dinner after 8 pm because all the local restuarants quit serving at 800. Oh, to have wireless access.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#18)
    by roy on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 02:02:12 PM EST
    Another school shooting, lest we forget about THAT terror trend in the homeland.
    School shootings are extremely rare, and the "trend" is trending downward (read a few of these) if you look at a few years at a time. A single incident can double the deaths for a year, so comparing strictly year-to-year is misleading. No disrespect to the kid who was killed intended.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#19)
    by BigTex on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 02:27:14 PM EST
    Ras (or anyone else) what is the upcoming Canada election looking like?

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#20)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 02:27:25 PM EST
    LAPTOP . . . in FEDERAL Court?!?!Verboten in mein courthouse without a motion and special permission for trial. CELLPHONES? HA! You must be joking.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#21)
    by Dadler on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 02:45:43 PM EST
    Ras, I understand what satire is, made a few bucks writing it even, my point was that the first lines didn't give me enough, that I'd have to read the entire essay to say for sure if it's quality is such that it should NEVER have been mistaken for "serious" commentary or not. Falling flat or no, maybe it's the funniest thing in the world, I don't know, I'm just curious if, like I said, the writing itself merits the attention. You know? Hell, when I was at UCSD, I wrote for our version of the Harvard Lampoon, called THE KOALA, and tho I never wrote particularly offensive stuff, I remember some stuff that woulda made anyone cringe and got us in trouble with the administration on more than one occasion.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#22)
    by pigwiggle on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 03:23:43 PM EST
    Thought I’d post this here since the last open thread is dead (other than Dadler, of course). John Stossel, former crush of Ralph Nader and ilk, is doing a piece on US public schools on 20/20 tonight. If his look at gun control last week didn’t get you sufficiently twisted, this should. You can get that liberal indignation burning now with this synopsis over at Reason.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#23)
    by pigwiggle on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 03:27:01 PM EST
    Oh, and since I doubt many of you make it by there, here is Reason's own Julian Sanchez with his interview of notorious NSA whistleblower Russell Tice.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#24)
    by MikeDitto on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 03:30:08 PM EST
    I saw Stossel and O'Reilly on Tv this morning in the same room. The sounds was down, so I have no idea what they were talking about. But I commented at the time that I was surprised the whole building didn't go aflame as a result of the superheated air in that room.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#25)
    by desertswine on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 03:38:17 PM EST
    Only in America. Vampire Runs for Governor He promises to personally impale murderers.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#26)
    by roy on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 03:48:20 PM EST
    MD, Stossel usually backs up his wild-arsed claims with studies and science. He often interviews advocates of opposing views on the same show on which he presents his own. If that's "hot air", how should one present contrarian opinions? Stossel was interviewed on the Colbert Report (I know I'm not the only regular poster here who watches) earlier this week. I usually like his work, but the man has no sense of humor.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#27)
    by Dadler on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 03:51:55 PM EST
    Pig, That's right, baby, Dadler LIVES. Threads die, but I go on and on and on... And make sure you check out that Belgian movie, La Promesse. Great little human story. IN OTHER NEWS (CBS/AP) At a joint White House news conference, President Bush rejected a plea by German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be shut down. He called the four-year-old camp "a necessary part of protecting the American people." Because? Because?? Because??? He never answers that part. And you know what I love about Gitmo? It's in f*cking CUBA!!! Castro ain't sh*t. We put our own little American gulag right on his arse and there's nothing he can do about it. And we STILL act as if our sh*t doesn't stink. We don't even BOTHER with perception, much less reality. We're good, baby.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#28)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:02:45 PM EST
    Our federal court lets us have cell phones and laptops. If we get an attorney card from the clerk's office (free to all who are licensed) we can bring in cell phones and PDAs with cameras. We just can't use the court's wireless connection because of security issues. But if we have our own, that's fine. Since there is no "hot spot" in the courthouse, having a WAN from Cingular works fine. It's faster than a dialup but not as fast as a cable or dsl connection. And of course, you have to turn the sound off, just like with cell phones. Our federal court doesn't accept paper filings anymore, only electronic, so it makes sense to move to an electronic office as well. My new laptop, bought by a very generous TalkLeft reader, came with the WAN card and a Cingular SIM chip, so I just added the monthly service onto my wireless bill. No more looking for hot spots. And, it's less than 3 pounds, which makes it much better than lugging paper files to court. Not to mention, if the Court is behind schedule and I have to sit through someone else's hearing, now I can be online checking email, etc. And, during my hearings, if I need to, I can pull a case off Lexis.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#29)
    by Sailor on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:16:21 PM EST
    Wow, quoting Dinesh D'Souza about racial satire is a non winner. This is the man who says slavery wasn't racist. And a reporter going to one rw political source and present only that side as the truth is pretty much the standard we expect from the rw media. D'Souza has a long history of racist, misogynist writings. He is representative of exactly the writings he is now declaring are 'satire.' And the crap that CAP wasn't an actual organization is one of the stupider talking points ever invented. It had a magazine, it had an executive committee, and it had Alito who was proud enough of his involvement, for 8 years, that he listed it proudly on a resume.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#30)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:24:16 PM EST
    and it had Alito who was proud enough of his involvement, for 8 years, that he listed it proudly on a resume.
    We are talking about the same CAP who's records were entered into the hearings, yesterday I think, right? The records that showed that Alito never attended a meeting, never wrote an article for their publication, was never mentioned in any article, was never mentioned in the minutes of any meeting, etc., etc., etc. Has this been discussed here on TL and I missed it?

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#31)
    by ras on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 05:15:52 PM EST
    "Whoops." Most folk usually figure out simple typos from context. Always happy to help those who strugggle, tho.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#32)
    by Sailor on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 05:26:35 PM EST
    PPJ, did you see that Daniel Negreanu was stopped by DHS? (hat tip to some other poster, sorry I can't remember who)
    We are talking about the same CAP who's records were entered into the hearings, yesterday I think, right?
    All of CAPs records were entered into the record? Really!? That's funny because CAP and D'Souza claim that they can't locate any records. BTW, did that 'disclosure' have a list of members in it? I mean, after all, an organization with a mag and an exec committee would certainly have membership records.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#33)
    by jimakaPPJ on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 07:58:33 PM EST
    Sailor - It has become so "iffy" that I am thinking of settinhg up accounts for wire transfers. Daniel Negreanu was (finally)recognized. I'm not famous.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#34)
    by jimakaPPJ on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 08:03:49 PM EST
    Sailor - BTW - I understand that anything under $5,000 is okay. Of course when the buy-in is $10,000, that is a problem. BTW - Some guy, can't remember who, had a similar problem in Detroit last January on his way to the tournaments in Tunica.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#35)
    by kdog on Sat Jan 14, 2006 at 09:39:22 AM EST
    We have the drug war to thank for that business sailor/jim. I think free Americans should be free to carry any amount of cash they wish. 5k, 10k, 1 million, whatever..wihout a hassle from sketchy govt. agents.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#36)
    by jimcee on Sat Jan 14, 2006 at 07:59:14 PM EST
    In regards to Sen Kennedy I don't care if what he was quoting was satire or not. He is satire disguised as a Senator who ironically is questioning someone about thier morals. Did I mention his Portugese Water Dog is named 'Splash'? Sailor, D'Sousa has written on slavery and he is right that slavery is not necessarily rascist. St Patrick was Romano-Briton but was enslaved by the Irish. Bristol, UK was a huge slave port specializing originally in Ireland to Romano-Briton, Romano-Briton to Ireland and later Irish for the Anglo-Saxons. Anglo-Saxons/Norse took slaves from all parts they invaded or traded with. Native Americans in South, Central and North America all traded in slaves who were for the most part other Native Americans. Heck the Aztecs first used them as slaves then decardiated them while they were still alive for religious purposes. Romans enslaved other Europeans and Cartheginians enslaved Romans and anyone else they thought they could use. Indo-Asians enslaved other Indo-Asians. Stalin enslaved other Russians, Mao enslaved all the population of China and killed 100,000,000 with his 'Cultural Revolution' and his 'Great Leap Forward'. I could go on all day but you probably get the point. Slavery is bad and some slavery has been rascist but histoically speaking it has been a fact of life. That slavery exists to this day in Asia and parts of the mid-east and Africa is of more concern to me than if slavery is inherently rascist. In other words Dinesh D'Sousa is correct and your snide little quip about him is misplaced or dare I say possibly rascist? Just asking.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#37)
    by Dadler on Sat Jan 14, 2006 at 10:29:38 PM EST
    Jimcee, Slavery is based on superiority, whether tribal, racial, societal, religous, whatever. The slavery that most influenced OUR nation and its history was most certainly racial. And, in the process, American took the commercial aspect of slavery to a level the world hadn't seen. So while the racial aspect of slavery is THE aspect of slavery most pertainent to the history of the United States, it is still the idea of superiority, of one people being less than fully human, that lies at the core.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#38)
    by Dadler on Sat Jan 14, 2006 at 10:34:58 PM EST
    Add Jimcee (damn wrong button), And, I should add, it is that notion of superiority which lies at the core of all slavery. In essence, the key component of racism IS a huge factor in slavery in general, everywhere.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#39)
    by jimcee on Sun Jan 15, 2006 at 07:51:47 PM EST
    Dadler, Superiority? Yes but inherent rascism? No. Rascism is just the rationalisation to justify the treachery of slavery. History provides as much as I have pointed out earlier. There wasn't much difference between the Irish and the Britons or Saxons, Asians and Asians or between any of the indiginous American peoples. As far as a study of how races have interacted in the US I would recommend Thomas Sowell's Ethnic America . It is probably the most honest report of how races have immigrated and intermingled in the US. Please don't tell me that Dr Sowell is an 'Uncle Tom' as that is just a tedious version of chucky10. Sowell is a well regarded economist who taught at Stanford for years and now chairs the Milton Friedman Chair at the Hoover Institute based at Stanford. It is only a suggestion but I can't recommend it highly enough.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#40)
    by Dadler on Sun Jan 15, 2006 at 08:37:21 PM EST
    Jimcee, Explain to me how racism is NOT based on the idea of superiority. And explain how any group enslaves another without first having to believe they are SUPERIOR as humans to the enslaved.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#41)
    by Dadler on Sun Jan 15, 2006 at 08:40:22 PM EST
    Add Jimcee, I have lived, under the same roof, with more than 50 different people, of more races and creeds than you'll ever experience, from women fleeing domestic violence, to Vietnam war refugees, to Ethiopian political asylum seekers, to African-Americans (my blood relatives), to people raised Orthodox Jewish, to people it would take forever to name. My opinions of race are quite informed by having LIVED with it for decades.

    Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0) (#42)
    by jimcee on Mon Jan 16, 2006 at 08:07:07 PM EST
    Dadler, Please re-read my previous post as I distinctly said that superiority is something that contributed to slavery, moreso than rascism has. As far as your interactions with other people I think that is great. As you don't really know much about who I have cohabitated with and which places I have lived I will allow your hyperbolic screed about my past to stand as just that, hyperbole.

    Friday Open Thread | 42 comments (42 topical)