The Real Lich King

E.D. Kain at Balloon Juice and Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic are in agreement that Glen Beck is the Lich King and a virulent brain eater. The Lich King thing is a WOW character that I had to have my son explain to me. He is sort of a 21st century Sauron. Though I have not hammered the Beckster here, I have no problem with their characterization, per se. I would proffer that in reality he is Saruman, merely a pale imitation. Dick Cheney is the front runner. This from Matt Yglesias.

Tony Blair confirms Dick Cheney's identity as the Lich King in his memoirs:

“He would have worked through the whole lot, Iraq, Syria, Iran, dealing with all their surrogates in the course of it – Hizbollah, Hamas, etc,” Mr Blair wrote in his autobiography, A Journey. “In other words, he thought the whole world had to be made anew, and that after September 11, it had to be done by force and with urgency.”

I would point to this WaPo article by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilme;

"...today, as the United States ends combat in Iraq, it appears that our $3 trillion estimate (which accounted for both government expenses and the war's broader impact on the U.S. economy) was, if anything, too low."

...

"Re-imagining history is a perilous exercise. Nonetheless, it seems clear that without this war, not only would America's standing in the world be higher, our economy would be stronger."

Dick Cheney is a real live Lich King, the driving force of evil in America.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell...Virginia style

This is from Radley Balko at Reason:

In April I wrote a column about the secretive habits of three large police departments in Virginia's Washington, D.C., suburbs: Fairfax County, Alexandria, and Arlington. As Connection Newspapers reporter Michael Pope showed in a series of reports that began in March, they are among the least transparent departments in the country, having interpreted Virginia's Freedom of Information Act in a way that allows them to turn down nearly all requests for information.

...

Michael Pope's initial attempts to obtain information, even about mundane cases or arrests the department itself was highlighting in press releases, met with astonishing disdain. Police were not only stingy with information; they were smug and arrogant about it.

**********

There is no way to explain to the outside world that this is how it has been done in Virginia since my granddaddy. Virginia invented "The good ole boy" system of regulation and control. I'm sure everyone is familiar with its various manifestations; The U.S Senate, the U.S. Military, CIA, ICE, Big Oil, Wall Street. All are examples of organizations which monitor their own behavior through secretive mechanisms, like shaman type shit. If Virginia were a little southwest of here, it would be called Arizona.

(HT) The Agitator

Hello, Chicago

Leo's Coney Island in Chicago

Since opening in Chicago in February 2010, Detroit hot dog institution Leo's Coney Island has thrived at its location on Southport and Cornelia.

Good news for Detroit and Chicago.
Good dogs, cold beer and the Cubs. Chicago, here I come.

A Novel Idea or Martians In L.A.

"...in some way they are able to generate an intense heat in a chamber of practically absolute non-conductivity. This intense heat they project in a parallel beam against any object they choose, by means of a polished parabolic mirror of unknown composition, much as the parabolic mirror of a lighthouse projects a beam of light... it is certain that a beam of heat is the essence of the matter. Heat, and invisible, instead of visible, light. Whatever is combustible flashes into flame at its touch, lead runs like water, it softens iron, cracks and melts glass, and when it falls upon water, incontinently that explodes into steam." ~ H. G. Wells - The War of the Worlds

LA authorities plan to use heat-beam ray in jail

By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer – Fri Aug 27, 12:50 am ET

LOS ANGELES – A device designed to control unruly inmates by blasting them with a beam of intense energy that causes a burning sensation is drawing heat from civil rights groups who fear it could cause serious injury and is "tantamount to torture."

The mechanism, known as an "Assault Intervention Device," is a stripped-down version of a military gadget that sends highly focused beams of energy at people and makes them feel as though they are burning. The Los Angeles County sheriff's department plans to install the device by Labor Day, making it the first time in the world the technology has been deployed in such a capacity.

...

The device was made specifically for the sheriff's department by Raytheon Missile Systems. Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said its $750,000 cost was paid for by a Department of Justice technology grant.

Hemlock, anyone?


(HT) The Agitator

Sunday At The Zoo

Grandma and I took the two granddaughters to Perry's Wildlife Zoo yesterday. A good time was had by all.

Mark Thoma : Back To The Present

I have to wonder if this is deja vu all over again. Mark Thoma posts about Fed views in the post WWII years:

Public Debt and National Income, by Evsey D. Domar, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors: On November 30, 1945 the Federal debt reached 265 billion dollars, a magnitude without precedent in the history of this country. With the present interest rate structure, it involves an annual service charge of more than 5 billion dollars, an amount exceeded by only two peacetime Federal budgets until 1934.[1] It is quite understandable that a debt of this magnitude should cause considerable apprehension, and that a policy of repaying at least a part of it should be advocated so often.

DEBT AS AN INSTRUMENT OF FISCAL POLICY

It is true that our economy would be better off without so large a debt. But this does not mean that our position can be always improved by reducing the debt. The difficulty lies in the fact that the various components of our economy are interdependent, so that it is impossible to change one without affecting the others. In particular, the debt problem is more complex and difficult than it appears on the surface because changes in the debt exercise a powerful effect on the size of the national income. ...

Debt and Fiscal Policy. ...Now that the war is over, our economic policy should be directed toward achieving a high and stable level of employment and a growing national income. But there is increasing agreement among economists and others that stability will not maintain itself automatically, and that active Government intervention will be needed to eliminate the swings between prosperity and depression which characterized our economy in the past..., a deficit will probably be required to prevent a slump. Similarly when inflation threatens, a budget surplus should be accumulated and a part of the debt repaid. But trying to repay the debt ... when considerable unemployment already exists ... makes little sense: income will suffer a greater proportional decline than the debt, and debt "burden" of the economy will actually rise.

If times of low business activity are sufficiently compensated by years of high private expenditures, Government deficits incurred during the former periods-will be balanced by surpluses created during the latter. Roughly speaking, the debt will then fluctuate around the same average level; over a period of time (without wars) its magnitude will not rise. But what if this will not be the case? What if in spite of all our efforts it will be impossible to accumulate sufficient surpluses to offset the deficits -- what kind of a debt problem shall we have to face then?

Secular Expansion of the Debt. ...Government borrowing ... is not synonymous with "make-work projects." There are many fields, such as urban redevelopment, public health and education, development of our resources, scientific research, and many others, in which Government expenditures are extremely useful, aside from employment aspects. That they create jobs and raise national income is so much the better. I believe that our actual experience during this war has well demonstrated that with sufficient Government expenditures national income can be raised to the highest level permitted by our productive capacity. This is now recognized by many competent authorities, including some opponents of Government borrowing. The latter object to the pursuit of such a policy on other grounds. From a political point of view, they argue, continuous Government borrowing will involve increasing regimentation and eventually destroy our democratic institutions; and from an economic point of view, it will lead to an ever mounting debt which, among other things, will necessitate higher and higher taxes with their well-known depressive effects.

The political aspects of Government borrowing are not discussed in this paper. In passing one can briefly remark that even in our most prosperous years, such as 1929, our cities were blighted by slums; that large areas of our country, particularly in the Southeast, have never had anything even approaching a satisfactory minimum standard of health and education, and that finally private business has-not been able to prevent the waste of our natural resources. Democracy will hardly be endangered by projects such as the TVA which, moreover, create numerous opportunities for private investment; or by healthier cities and better schools. As we can learn from the experience of other countries, it is chronic depression and unemployment that endanger democracy. ...

Dr. Krugman has been saying this over and over again.

So has Robert Reich.

Mark Thoma is not sanguine, either.

Why We Fight

I hate the war in Iraq. A useless misadventure based on lies. I hate the war in Afghanistan. A schizophrenic reversion to the US foreign policy of the 1960's. But we fight on. This is one of the primary reasons. Americans are hostile to inhuman, uncivilized persecution.These incidents of inhumanity only solidify the prosecution of the war. It can only end one way. Horribly.