LSWTF Dubya Departure Celebration

Merchant of Peace...

...or should it be merchant of piece? Apparently Shrubya is dispatching Darth Cheney to push for Middle East peace.

No, that isn't a typo, Shrubya actually believes that Dick Cheney can help the peace process along. Of course, I realize where he got this idea from, do you?

Over the weekend Shrubya must have watched Star Wars Episode III, Revenge of the Sith. He sends Darth Cheney to the "rebels" to broker peace...with a lightsaber, or in this instance a hunting rifle. After all you know, when one thinks about peace in the middle east one thinks of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Dews Taco Day

Yes I know, "Taco Day" just sounds... Well, strange...

But, a place I have been going to since before I was able to walk has had a tradition of serving a taco buffet every friday, so for twenty seven years I have attended it at least a few times a year. Having lived in DC for the last eight years though, its made it more a bi-weekly tradition, thus "Taco Day".

On to the news...

Interesting study out of Boston today that indicates that people are more likely to spend more extravagantly when, well, sad...

The so-called "misery is not miserly" phenomenon is well-known to psychologists, advertisers and personal shoppers alike, and has been documented in a similar study in 2004.
The new study released Friday by researchers from four universities goes further, trying to answer whether temporary sadness alone can trigger spendthrift tendencies.

This honestly doesn't come off as much of a surprise to me as we, as a society, have been conditioned for fear and consumption. Why shouldn't sadness be a product of fear?

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Bush's Poll numbers continue to sink to historical lows (as do Congress, but thats not a huge surprise).

Just to head off any questions, yes my family was from Sicily, but no I am not at all connected to these wonderful fellas. Do you think I'd only have a two bedroom apartment NOT stocked with prostitutes if I did?

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Finally a wonderful use for Facebook and Myspace (besides posting photos of some crazy Vegas adventure?). Gang recruitment!

Young people who visit social networking sites to download music and
pictures glorifying criminal street gangs can unwittingly set themselves up to
be recruited by those gangs, according to law enforcement officials and youth
counselors.

Ok, so let me get this straight... If someone where to download material that "glorifies criminal street gang" activity, they would be "unwittingly" setting themselves up for recruitment???

If the individual is interested in glorified material from said street gang, wouldn't that kind of indicate they may be interested in joining? WTF is this "unwittingly" crap? Thats like walking into an army recruiter station only to be shocked they would actually want you to join the freakin army...

"I just wanted the free watch!!!"

That is all...

Gross, Absurd Negligence

In the law of torts, negligence is defined as "the failure to exercise the standard of care that a reasonably prudent person would have exercised in a similar situation." Gross negligence is defined as "a conscious, voluntary act or omission in reckless disregard of a legal duty and of the consequences to another party...." That pretty much fits the description of the Bush Administration's approach to veterans' health care, but we already knew that. What's even more deplorable is this recent lawsuit, which the Administration is defending against, brought by veterans who are just trying to get the health care they were promised.

I could spout on and on about honoring those who've served our country, risking their lives in the belief that they were securing our freedom and safety. That would be great, but really, I'm not going to launch into some patriotic rant, and I'm not a veteran, so I feel I can't take up some patriotism laced moralistic rant.

But I am a lawyer. I've learned a thing or two about a thing or two, and one of those things is that our system of justice puts a lot of emphasis on fulfilling promises. We really don't like it when someone makes a promise to get someone else to do something, and then that first person backs out, leaving the other guy in the lurch. We're so about that principle of fairness and fair dealing that we teach it to our kids at a young age, and long before the founding fathers had grand notions about the form of government, jurists had settled on the principle that you don't make promises you don't intend to keep.

If there was a Ten Commandments of Anglo-American law, the first commandment would be "don't screw people over."

But that's exactly what these Bush folks are doing. They wanted lots of soldiers to go abroad and fight this Administration's enemies, but the Administration didn't really want to get stuck paying them. So, they made promises they weren't willing to keep. They've baited people in with promises of health care, which is gold nowadays, education, and a lifetime of slaps on the back at the bar. Now, thousands of veterans are hurt and filled with thoughts of suicide. They've been screwed; the Administration is not fulfilling its end of the bargain. The veterans' health care issue is emblematic of the Bush Administration's approach to governing: make promises about taxes, the war, health care, and a wide range of other things, but don't keep them. Just bait people into going with you, and then slyly back out before you have to pay the bill.

It's just not right.

Written while listening to Neil Young, Live at Massey Hall 1971

Dews Slow Monday...

In total agreement with Jack on how slowly this day is going... Its feeling like I"ve been working for many many hours now, when in reality is has not been long at all.

Didn't help to have a string of essentially 4 days of debauchery to lead up to today though either...

No matter, on to the news:

Leading off, it never ceases to amaze me how often my home state (People's Republic of Vermont) seems to be in the headlines. Thankfully for more interesting things then the decriminalization of Marijuana this time:

Brattleboro residents will vote at town meeting on whether President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should be indicted and arrested for war crimes, perjury or obstruction of justice if they ever step foot in Vermont.

The Brattleboro Select Board voted 3-2 Friday to put the controversial item on the Town Meeting Day warning.

I love the fact that Vermont still celebrates its Republic past by continuing with the tradition of "Town Meeting Day", even though the last few years have essentially been indictments of the present administration rather then the important local issues (but at least everyone gets a day off for it :) ).

No word yet as to whether President Bush, or Vice President Cheney would actually respond to such an indictment...

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Home prices continue their enormous slump, only this time its on historic levels. In what has been viewed as the most significant decline in housing costs since the Great Depression, home values have declined for the first time since "reliable records began in 1968!"

Over all, sales of previously owned single-family homes fell 13 percent in
2007, the biggest drop in a quarter-century. Last month alone, home sales dipped
2.2 percent from November, to a 4.89 million annual rate. (The group’s survey
excludes newly constructed homes.)

I think its safe to say that something momentously bad is about to happen in this already very weak economic cycle...

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Finally, this Friday begins the infamous Carnival celebration in Brazil. Thankfully I will be in Vegas to celebrate another momentous event, otherwise this sounds like one helluva party... You know its going to get a little wild when your own government is advising you to have a good time, but:

Latin America's largest country stops work and indulges in a riot of
drinking, dancing and parades accompanied by often licentious behavior.

Lula appealed in his weekly radio address for people to be careful during the
partying.

"No one needs to drink or do anything more than normal to enjoy
themselves," he said.

Truly, something that LSWTF needs to be represented at next year... Being the only one that isn't stuck in "America's Siberia" or otherwise "unable" to attend such an event, I volunteer to represent us all next year... That is all :)

Random Thoughts...by Jack Handly

Well, not by Jack, but before I sit down and do this week's Mock Draft I thought I'd put out a few of the thoughts bumping around in my head this morning...

Chavo Guerrero has become the ECW World's Heavyweight Champion. I wish I could be excited for Chavo and Pele, but the booking was so atrocious for this feud that I'm nauseated as I type this.

Does anyone else think that the Double Stuff League that Eli and Peyton are doing is just a metaphor for the type of bedroom activities that Eli likes to participate in? I'm talking Eli Manning is fucking Chinese Finger Cuffs.

Everyone was all clamoring about Tom Brady's boot yesterday you thought he was Elvis for a second. The dude wore a boot, it was just to give those local New Yorkers some hope before Boston goes up on the Big Apple...again.

I can't stand Red Sox Nation, and this Super Bowl sure as hell isn't going to help matters. They can all go fuck their dawg in der yard by der car.

A shocking study shows that drug treatment and not prison reduces crime then when imprisoned. This is about as shocking as the report that said Bush and his lackeys made 935 false statements leading up to the Iraq war. Next thing they're gonna tell me is I'm going bald and the Redskins are hopeless in their coaching decisions.

Of course Fred Thompson is gonna attempt to set himself up as Vice President. The man has never been a leading actor in any movie or tv show he's been a part of.

Finally, the New Jersey Devils bitch slapped the Philadelphia Flyers last night, 7-3. I had the good fortune of watching 2/3rds of the game with my Flyer friend, he was not happy to be sitting next to a Devils fan.

For those who don't know, after the Job celebration on Friday (since it starts at 5) we're gonna jump on the Metro and find Rambo playing somewhere...bring weapons or we're not gonna change nothing.

A Brave New World

Apparently Dubya still loves to be read to before he goes to bed.

A few days later, I brought into the Oval Office my copy of Brave New World, Aldous Huxley’s 1932 anti-utopian novel, and as I read passages aloud imagining a future in which humans would be bred in hatcheries, a chill came over the room. “We’re tinkering with the boundaries of life here,” Bush said when I finished. “We’re on the edge of a cliff. And if we take a step off the cliff, there’s no going back. Perhaps we should only take one step at a time.”

As you saw Jay P. Lefkowitz, who worked as general counsel in the Office of Management and Budget under Bush, has written a book called "Stem Cells and the President: An Inside Account". Imagine what would have happened during Dubya's presidency if other books had been read to him.

Would have still violated our rights if someone had read to him 1984?

Would things have been run differently if he had been read Animal Farm?

Would have kept on doing drugs if he had heard Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas?

Would Voldemort had been moved to the FBI's Top Ten Most wanted after The Half Blood Prince?

Would 9-11 happen if he had been read the briefing Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US?

Pakistan and the rule of law

In case you hadn't heard, there's a revolt going on in Pakistan. General Musharraf has arrested justices of the Pakistani Supreme Court and other high courts and tried to reconsitute them with justices and judges who are loyal to him. It's like FDR's court-packing plan, but with home arrests instead of semi-retirement. In response, the nation's lawyers, along with some opposition party folks have taken to the streets and (as far as the lawyers go) have refused to practice before the reconstituted tribunals.

What gets me the most about all this is the way the American television media is treating this. I was at the gym last night on the treadmill watching CBS and Fox (someone was flipping channels, thank God they didn't turn it to CMT) as they discussed the revolts. The talking heads called this a revolt by reactionaries and revolutionaries and other like-sounding bad names. I thought to myself "how disingenuous can our media be?"

Really, folks, this is about the rule of law. The rule of law is a great thing: it makes our every day intereactions, from the times you have to talk to the police to the time you try to set up a 401(k) predictable and stable. That's good. Makes things more peaceful and businessmen will tell you its one of the keys to economic strength. Pakistan doesn't have it right now, and it doesn't have it because General Musharraf is afraid that people are going to go against him.

But, to listen to our media, these are a bunch of crazed hooligans and Islamofascists (another disingenuous term) running around Islamabad tearing the place up. It's lawyers fighting for what we have, and, as a lawyer, I would do the same if George Bush tried to replace Justice Ginsberg with Robert Bork and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals with the board of Halliburton. I just wish our media would call it like it is.

Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.

So the deciderererer this week declared that if we don't stop Iran from acquiring nuclear capabilities we risk World War III occurring. I kid you not, our President stated that if Iran goes nuclear World War III occurs, you know the dream he's had since he got the job.

“We got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel,” Mr. Bush said at a White House news conference, referring to a remark by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that Israel “will disappear soon.” Mr. Bush said he had “told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”

That's what we need right now, a leader who says that unless something happens we're gonna be in the greatest fight the world may have ever seen. World War I and World War II are going to be nothing compared to what we are able to do in today's world with our technology. It will also be the first true World War, if it erupts I don't know if we won't see the entire world in flames in the palm of Ares.

The situation has escalated since then as now Russia has thrown its own hat into the ring. They have signed a pact with the five Caspian Sea nations stating that if any of them are attack Russia will side with them.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia said at a summit meeting of five Caspian Sea nations in Iran on Tuesday that any use of military force in the region was unacceptable, and in a declaration the countries agreed that none of them would allow their territories to be used as a base for military strikes against any of the others.

"We should not even think of making use of force in this region," Putin said.

So Dubya in his infinite wisdom has decided to take on the world, because after all you don't mess with Texas right? We want to start shit with Iran, who has Russia on their side. Not only that, China will be on their side since China gets the majority of their oil from Iran. That hurts us since the majority of our debt comes from China. In the traditional military sense, Russia and China are our biggest threats and now Dubya has rallied them to protect Iran from the US attacking them.

So, for once, Dubya had to do some damage control over his most recent remarks.

President Bush was simply “making a point” when he stated at his press conference this week that anyone who wants to avert World War III wants to keep nuclear weapons out of Iran’s hands, the White House said today.

“The president was not making any war plans,” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said today. “He was not making any declaration. He was making a point.”

Ah, I see, the President of the United States arguably the most powerful man in the free world was merely...making a point. I'm sorry, but stop acting like a fucking child who isn't getting his way in the supermarket. You don't need to make points, you need to be a fucking leader who has the god damn common sense not to piss into the wind. Sometimes I wish you still drank, then at least we could have something to blame all this stupidity on.

Military commanders have said they have crippled Al Queada in Iraq, not destroyed or eliminated but definitely crippled. Things are starting to look bright once again in Iraq as General Petraeus' surge and plans are showing some benefit. You however will not see this as a positive sign that maybe we can begin to bring some of the troops home. No, we all see your colors now. You want the troops in Iraq, not to stabilize or fight terror. No you plan on using those troops to attack Iran without provocation.

I'm sorry folks, what happened in 1979 is not reason. Hell, what happened ten years ago is not reason enough to go to war. This President is hell bent on sending us straight to hell on Earth and World War III and there may be no place in the world that is safe for any of us if that happens.