Texas immigration bill has an escape clause

As explained at Yglesias:

Under the House Bill 2012 introduced by a tea party favorite state Rep. Debbie Riddle — who’s been saying for some time that she’d like to see Texas institute an Arizona-style immigration law — hiring an undocumented maid, caretaker, lawnworker or any type of houseworker would be allowed. Why? As Texas state Rep. Aaron Pena, also a Republican, told CNN, without the exemption, “a large segment of the Texas population” would wind up in prison if the bill became law.

“When it comes to household employees or yard workers it is extremely common for Texans to hire people who are likely undocumented workers,” Pena told the news giant. “It is so common it is overlooked.”

I get so tired of the rampant and unrelenting hypocrisy of American legislators that I almost can't bring myself to continue reading such articles, much less blog them. 

Via ravings of a semi-sane madwoman.

Hatred in America

YouTube link.

This is so painful to view that I couldn't even watch it to the end.  I'm not going to append any comments; there is a discussion thread at Reddit.

Advertisement for the new Wii game "We Dare"

This video includes commentary by the editors at IGN Rewind Theater. If you want to view the advertisement alone, go to this YouTube link.

This was brought to my attention by an article at The Telegraph, which noted -

We Dare, which is advertised with images of handcuffs, spanking and partner-swapping, has been awarded a 12+ certificate even though its makers say it is intended for an "adult audience"...

The body responsible for classifying computer games in Britain yesterday defended the 12+ certificate. Laurie Hall, director general of the Video Standards Council, said: "The average 16-year-old would think everything in We Dare was beneath them – although the game contains innuendo and suggestion, if it showed anything sexual it would be have received a 16 rating".

Update: The video appears to be a spoof. Hat tip to WhiteBearStudios.

TSA screening

With a twist...

The only bad thing on our trip was TSA was at the Savannah train station. There were about 14 agents pulling people inside the building and coralling everyone in a roped area AFTER you got OFF THE TRAIN! This made no sense!!! Poor family in front of us! 9 year old getting patted down and wanded. They groped our people too and were very unprofessional. I am all about security, but when have you ever been harassed and felt up getting OFF a plane? Shouldn't they be doing that getting ON???

Protest and free speech

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking at George Washington University; her speech condemned governments that arrest protesters and don’t allow free speech.  During her presentation, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern stood in the aisle and turned his back on her in silent protest; he was dragged from the room by her security staff.

(There may be a more detailed backstory with some justification; I haven't found it yet.)

Found at Metafilter, where there is a long discussion thread.

The union for union-bashers

A comment from The People's Republic of Moronia:

...And in the ulti­mate irony, Rush Lim­baugh, who called union work­ers “bottom-​​feeding free­load­ers,” Glenn Beck, who mirac­u­lously linked trade union­ism with Com­mu­nists, social­ists, the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, and the United Nations, and numer­ous other con­ser­v­a­tive com­men­ta­tors are all mem­bers of the Amer­i­can Fed­er­a­tion of Tele­vi­sion and Radio Artists (AFTRA), an AFL-​​CIO union.

Where are Obama's comfortable shoes ??

Video excerpt from a 2007 speech, which included these words:

And understand this: If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself, I’ll walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America. Because workers deserve to know that somebody is standing in their corner.

One wag at the Firedoglake source suggested that the shoes have waffle soles.

$40 billion "missing" in Iraq

This appears to be different from the billions of USD that "went missing" earlier during the war.  According to Al Arabiya...

Around $40 billion are "missing" from a post-Gulf War fund that Iraq maintains to protect the money from foreign claims, its parliamentary speaker said on Monday as authorities scrambled to head off further protests on cutting politicians' pay and ramping up support for the needy

"There is missing money, we do not know where it has gone," Osama al-Nujaifi said at a news conference in Baghdad. "The money is around $40 billion in total."

"It may have been spent somewhere, but it does not appear in our accounts, so parliament will investigate where this money has gone."

"Slave children from New Orleans"

The photo is from a carte de visite in the Library of Congress, acquired in 1864, and described as follows: "Photograph shows freed slaves, Rosina Downs, Charley Taylor, and Rebecca Huger, each wrapped in a portion of the U.S. flag."

A search of the Library of Congress archives reveals quite a few additional photographs of these children, such as this one -

- obviously created as propaganda instruments for the abolitionist movement.  Some of the background story is presented in an article in Harper's Weekly (January 30, 1864):

Rebecca Huger is eleven years old, and was a slave in her father's house, the special attendant of a girl a little older than herself. To all appearance she is perfectly white. Her complexion, hair, and features show not the slightest trace of negro blood. In the few months during which she has been at school she has learned to read well, and writes as neatly as most children of her age. Her mother and grandmother live in New Orleans, where they support themselves comfortably by their own labor. The grandmother, an intelligent mulatto, told Mr. Bacon that she had "raised" a large family of children, but these are all that are left to her.

Rosina Downs is not quite seven years old. She is a fair child, with blonde complexion and silky hair. Her father is in the rebel army. She has one sister as white as herself, and three brothers who are darker. Her mother, a bright mulatto, lives in New Orleans in a poor hut, and has hard work to support her family.

Charles Taylor is eight years old. His complexion is very fair, his hair light and silky. Three out of five boys in any school in New York are darker than he. Yet this white boy, with his mother, as he declares, has been twice sold as a slave. First by his father and "owner," Alexander Wethers, of Lewis County, Virginia, to a slave-trader named Harrison, who sold them to Mr. Thornhill of New Orleans. This man fled at the approach of our army, and his slaves were liberated by General Butler. The boy is decidedly intelligent, and though he has been at school less than a year he reads and writes very well. His mother is a mulatto; she had one daughter sold into Texas before she herself left Virginia, and one son who, she supposes, is with his father in Virginia.

These three children, to all appearance of unmixed white race, came to Philadelphia last December, and were taken by their protector, Mr. Bacon, to the St. Lawrence Hotel on Chestnut Street. Within a few hours, Mr. Bacon informed me, he was notified by the landlord that they must therefore be colored persons, and he kept a hotel for white people. From this hospitable establishment the children were taken to the "Continental," where they were received without hesitation.

I'm sure much additional information can be found on this rather interesting topic.

Via Historical Indulgences.

"Wet houses" (hospices for alcoholics)

I thought I was pretty well informed, but I've never heard of this before.  Excerpts from a story at TwinCities.com:

Hagerman has been drinking for 39 years. He drinks despite decades of lectures, prayers and punishment. He drinks despite two years of homelessness, six DWI convictions, six treatments for alcoholism and 13 months in jail. What's ahead for Hagerman? The 54-year-old can see only one thing in his future — more drinking.

That's why he feels lucky to live in a hospice for alcoholics — St. Anthony Residence in St. Paul. There, 60 men can — and often do — drink until they die. There are no counselors, no scolding, no 12-step programs, no group hugs. Just the love of Hagerman's life, waiting for him every day — alcohol. On his weeklong binges, he chugs vodka, beer or mouthwash. They are interchangeable to him, he said, gazing around his 12-by-12-foot concrete apartment.

"I drink," he said quietly, "until I kill the damn day off."

For three years, St. Anthony has been operated by Ramsey County, St. Paul, the state of Minnesota and Catholic Charities, at a cost of $18,000 per person per year. It's one of four so-called "wet houses" in the state. Like a growing number of wet houses across the country, it allows alcoholics to drink, even when it's killing them...

Once alcoholics become residents, the police know their names. If one is found passed out in a park, the police simply return him to St. Anthony — no ambulances, hospitals or trips to detox. If needed, residents get medical care from an in-house nurse. If they get sick, they go to a hospital.

And when they get extremely sick? There's an in-house hospice service. Three to five residents die every year....

Please read the entire article at the link before leaving any comments here.

The U.S. Constitution offers protection to non-Americans

A post I wrote last week ("Guantanamo detainee dies in custody") has elicited a vigorous and heated interchange in the Comments section.  I normally leave comment debates alone as long as they don't deteriorate into interpersonal "ad hominem" attacks, but one comment that was made today warrants rebuttal:

"Constitutional right? He's a terrorist, NOT an American citizen, he has NO Constitutional right"

That's wrong.  Ethically wrong - AND Constitutionally wrong.  Here's a repost of an article I posted one year ago:

Selections from another interesting essay by Glenn Greenwald at Salon:

...one of the most pervasive myths in our political discourse: namely, that the U.S. Constitution protects only American citizens, and not any dreaded foreigners...

First, the U.S. Supreme Court, in 2008, issued a highly publicized opinion, in Boumediene v. Bush... although the decision was 5-4, none of the 9 Justices -- and, indeed, not even the Bush administration -- argued that the Constitution applies only to American citizens. What divided the Boumediene Court was the question of whether foreigners held by the U.S. military outside of the U.S. (as opposed to inside the U.S.) enjoy Constitutional protections...

Indeed, the whole reason why Guantanamo was created was that Bush officials wanted to claim that the Constitution is inapplicable to foreigners held outside the U.S. -- not even the Bush administration would claim that the Constitution is inapplicable to foreigners generally.

The principle that the Constitution applies not only to Americans, but also to foreigners, was hardly invented by the Court in 2008. To the contrary, the Supreme Court -- all the way back in 1886 -- explicitly held this to be the case... Over 100 years ago, the Supreme Court explicitly said that the rights of the Constitution extend to citizens and foreigners alike. The Court has repeatedly applied that principle over and over.

The epidemic of requiring "licensing"

Excerpts from an interesting article at The Wall Street Journal:

Amid calls for shrinking government, lawmakers across the country are vowing to cut regulations that crimp economic growth. President Barack Obama recently said it's time to root out laws that "are just plain dumb."

Tell that to the cat groomers, tattoo artists, tree trimmers and about a dozen other specialists across the country who are clamoring for more rules governing small businesses.

They're asking to become state-licensed professionals, which would mean anyone wanting to be, say, a music therapist or a locksmith, would have to pay fees, apply for a license and in some cases, take classes and pass exams. The hope is that regulation will boost the prestige of their professions, provide oversight and protect consumers from shoddy work...

While some states have long required licensing for workers who handle food or touch others—caterers and hair stylists, for example—economists say such regulation is spreading to more states for more industries. The most recent study, from 2008, found 23% of U.S. workers were required to obtain state licenses, up from just 5% in 1950...

Texas, for instance, requires hair-salon "shampoo specialists" to take 150 hours of classes, 100 of them on the "theory and practice" of shampooing, before they can sit for a licensing exam... California requires barbers to study full-time for nearly a year, a curriculum that costs $12,000...

And here's a key point -

When a trade group does succeed in getting a licensing law passed, it sometimes exempts existing workers from the testing requirements. In Michigan, for instance, it will soon be a felony to practice massage without a license. Newcomers to the field must take 500 hours of classes and pass an exam to get that license. But a grandfather clause exempts most current massage therapists, including those who may never have taken a class at an accredited school.

Much more at the link, via Yglesias.

Human zoo specimens

"These five members of the Kawesqar tribe, which is home in Tierra del Fuego in Chile’s far south, were kidnapped in 1881 and sent to Europe to be displayed in “human zoos.” The five died in Zürich a year after their capture."

Found at First Time User.

Sodium thiopental shortage threatens executions

"A shortage of a drug used in executions in the United States has sent U.S. states scrambling to find supplies, or alternative drugs. Among the 35 states in which capital punishment is legal, some--including Arizona and California--had been sourcing a key execution drug, sodium thiopental, through a company in London--until UK government officials put a stop to its export. The only U.S. company making the drug, which sought to move its manufacturing base to Italy, has now given up producing sodium thiopental because it cannot assure Italian officials that it won't be used for executions. 

The situation demonstrates that although pharmaceutical supply chains are global, the morals and mores of drug use are decidedly local. Will U.S. states be forced to stop executing their death-row inmates by a drug embargo?...

A standard three-drug sequence is used in the United States to execute prisoners condemned to death...  three drugs, to be administered in sequence: sodium thiopental to render the condemned unconscious; pancuronium bromide, to paralyze the body and lungs; and potassium chloride to stop the heart.  ..

In recent years, sodium thiopental has been used less and less often for anesthesia, as newer drugs have gained favor. For some time, all the sodium thiopental in the United States has come from a drug company called Hospira, based in Lake Forest, Ill. In the summer of 2009, Hospira had to suspend production of the drug. The company that made the active ingredient--which Hospira would not name, but US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) records identify as Abbott Laboratories--stopped making it...

Meanwhile, companies and government officials in Germany have come together against supplying the United States with any sodium thiopental for executions, according to the Associated Press..."

More at Scientific American, via the New Shelton wet/dry.

Guantanamo detainee dies in custody

My post earlier this week "Guantanamo detainee dies in custody" has elicited a vigorous and heated interchange in the comments section.  I typically leave comment debates alone as long as they don't deteriorate into "ad hominem" personal attacks on each other, but one comment today deserves a rebuttal:

Constitutional right? He's a terrorist, NOT an American citizen, he has NO Constitutional rights.

That's wrong.   Ethically wrong - and Constitutionally wrong.  Here's a repost of a TYWKIWDBI post from one year ago:

Excerpts from Glenn Greenwald's column at Salon:

A 48-year-old Afghan citizen and Guantanamo detainee, Awal Gul, died on Tuesday of an apparent heart attack. Gul, a father of 18 children, had been kept in a cage by the U.S. for more than 9 years -- since late 2001 when he was abducted in Afghanistan -- without ever having been charged with a crime... This episode illustrates that the U.S. Government's detention policy -- still -- amounts to imposing life sentences on people without bothering to prove they did anything wrong.

Gul was imprisoned for 8 years without a shred of due process (outside of internal Bush Pentagon "administrative reviews") and finally had his Constitutional right to obtain habeas review affirmed by the Supreme Court in 2008. His habeas petition was fully submitted and orally argued almost a full year ago, yet even in the face of his prolonged, due-process-free imprisonment, the federal judge presiding over the case just never bothered to rule on his claims. There's a well-known legal maxim that "justice delayed is justice denied," but this goes well beyond merely violating that. Taking almost a full year -- at least -- to decide a habeas petition for someone who is languishing in indefinite detention for their ninth year is simply inexcusable...

Mubarak's wealth

When I posted a query last week asking why Mubarak doesn't just leave Egypt, I commented that "he must have gobs of money."  Even though I'm a seasoned cynic, I was startled by the number cited by ABC News:

Experts say the wealth of the Mubarak family was built largely from military contracts during his days as an air force officer. He eventually diversified his investments through his family when he became president in 1981. The family's net worth ranges from $40 billion to $70 billion, by some estimates...

"The business ventures from his military and government service accumulated to his personal wealth," said Jamal. "There was a lot of corruption in this regime and stifling of public resources for personal gain."

Jamal said that Mubarak's assets are most likely in banks outside of Egypt, possibly in the United Kingdom and Switzerland...

Gross national income is $2,070 per family in Egypt, according to the World Bank.

Waterboarding of babies

Water torture of babies is one way some members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day instil fear of authority, a former member testified Wednesday...

"They spank the baby and when it cries, they hold the baby face up under the tap with running water. When they stop crying, they spank it again and the cycle is repeated until they are exhausted." It's typically done by fathers and it's called "breaking in."

Outside the courthouse, Jessop said water torture is common enough that there doesn't seem any shame attached to the practice...

The full story is at the Montreal Gazette, via Get Cynical. (In all fairness we should note that this testimony was presented during the course of a custody trial).

Human wall protecting the Cairo Museum

Kudos to these men.

Source, via Reddit.

Absurdly filthy rich

You can access all the NonSequitur comics here.

"The rich are different from you and me"

The title is a slightly abbreviated misquotation from the short story "The Rich Boy" (1926), by fellow-Minnesotan F. Scott Fitzgerald: "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand."

A good example is given in yesterday's Wall Street Journal account of the divorce of a fund manager:

* The couple owned six homes–including a $4 million home in Rancho Santa Fe and a penthouse in Manhattan–and had two more under construction. The total value of the homes was more than $40 million...

* Mr. Brandes owned 10 Ferraris (valued at more than $4.4 million) and an “extremely long driveway” to race sports cars, dirt bikes and ATVs.

* She had gambling bills of as much as $30,000 a month.

* Mr. Brandes paid Elton John somewhere from $1 million to $1.5 million to perform at his wedding when he remarried in 2006. He paid Christina Aguilera $1 million to perform at a Halloween party...

While the investments generated about $154,881 a month, she said she needed more, citing her clothing budget ($70,000 a year), art spending and gambling bills. Her support increased to $500,000 a month, or $6 million...

She may indeed be entitled to far more than she has already received, since his monthly income is reported to be more than $16 million.

Yet hearing someone say that $6 million a year isn’t enough to live on shows just how removed the economy of the rich has become from the rest of the country...

And today the Telegraph features a story about how "wealth inequality" is under discussion at the Davos summit:

“The increase in inequality is the most serious challenge for the world,” Min Zhu, a special adviser at the International Monetary Fund and a former deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, told delegates at the Davos gathering...

Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at New York University, also warned that inequality “exacerbates political instability”...

Mr Zhu said raising taxes on the rich would not address the core of the problem. “It’s not just about tax, we need to go further. We need to look back at how and where this wealth is being created,” he said...