Bill Ardolino has a pretty long and thorough post discussing attempts to spin the number of fatalities related to RU-486.
More on the ‘Wall’
Deborah Orin has an additional column on Clinton-era policies and terrorism:
PRESIDENT Bill Clinton’s team ignored dire warnings that its approach to terrorism was “very dangerous” and could have “deadly results,” according to a blistering memo just obtained by The Post.
Then-Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White wrote the memo as she pleaded in vain with Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick to tear down the wall between intelligence and prosecutors, a wall that went beyond legal requirements.
Looking back after 9/11, the memo makes for eerie reading — because White’s team foresaw, years in advance, that the Clinton-era wall would make it tougher to stop mass murder.
“This is not an area where it is safe or prudent to build unnecessary walls or to compartmentalize our knowledge of any possible players, plans or activities,” wrote White, herself a Clinton appointee.
Again, while all the second-guessing is interesting (and goodness knows the Democrats would be trumpeting this were roles reversed), what is more interesting is why this is all coming out right now. Part of an August roll-out becuase of the slow news cycle? Part of a Plame/Rove pushabck? Or is the information just now becoming available?
The Roberts Conundrum
Looks like the base is pissed with reports there will be no vicious confirmation battle:
Major liberal groups accused Democratic senators yesterday of showing too little stomach for opposing John G. Roberts Jr.’s Supreme Court nomination, saying newly released documents indicate he is much more conservative than many people first thought.
The response was quick and pointed, as two key senators unleashed their sharpest criticisms yet of Roberts and sought to assure activists that the battle is far from over.
That would certainly explain this quote:
“All this talk about whether Democrats will support the Roberts nomination is laughably premature. The hearings have not even begun. The White House has so far refused to produce relevant documents, and the documents we have seen raise questions about the nominee’s commitment to progress on civil rights.
John Roberts must still persuade the Senate and the American people that he is a worthy replacement for Justice O’Connor and the jury is still out on that.”
Worthy replacement for O’Connor? I am a little rusty on the Constitution, but I don’t remember that aspect of the confirmation process.
Rob Schneider- The New Rodney Dangerfield?
Rob Schneider is getting no respect at all. First, Roger Ebert savages him. Today, the NY Times has a puff piece about the Daily Show’s Steve Carel that has this paragraph:
If Mr. Carell does, in fact, emerge as the film-comedy hot property, competing for roles against the likes of Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughan, Will Ferrell (or, if things go horribly wrong, Rob Schneider), he will undoubtedly owe much of his success to the cachet that comes from his four years in the cast of “The Daily Show,” where he honed the deadpan obliviousness that led to “Bruce Almighty” (where he arguably outshone Jim Carrey), “Anchorman” and “The Office.”
Not that he deserves any respect, but, man… I dated a girl who thought the ‘Making Copies’ routine on SNL was the height of hilarity. I was not so impressed.
Rob Schneider- The New Rodney Dangerfield?Post + Comments (13)
The Continuing Kelo Outrage
If this is correct, this is the most outrageous think I have ever heard, and I have heard a lot in the past few years:
Those who believe in the adage “when it rains, it pours” might take the tale of the plaintiffs in Kelo v. New London as a cue to buy two of every animal and a load of wood from Home Depot. The U.S. Supreme Court recently found that the city’s original seizure of private property was constitutional under the principal of eminent domain, and now New London is claiming that the affected homeowners were living on city land for the duration of the lawsuit and owe back rent. It’s a new definition of chutzpah: Confiscate land and charge back rent for the years the owners fought confiscation.
In some cases, their debt could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Moreover, the homeowners are being offered buyouts based on the market rate as it was in 2000…
The New London Development Corp., the semi-public organization hired by the city to facilitate the deal, is offering residents the market rate as it was in 2000, as state law requires. That rate pales in comparison to what the units are now worth, owing largely to the relentless housing bubble that has yet to burst.
“I can’t replace what I have in this market for three times [the 2000 assessment],” says Dery, 48, who works as a home delivery sales manager for the New London Day . He soothes himself with humor: “It’s a lot like what I like to do in the stock market: buy high and sell low.”
And there are more storms on the horizon. In June 2004, NLDC sent the seven affected residents a letter indicating that after the completion of the case, the city would expect to receive retroactive “use and occupancy” payments (also known as “rent”) from the residents.
In the letter, lawyers argued that because the takeover took place in 2000, the residents had been living on city property for nearly five years, and would therefore owe rent for the duration of their stay at the close of the trial. Any money made from tenantssome residents’ only form of incomewould also have to be paid to the city.
If this is correct, and my reading is accurate, they are kicking these people off of their property and handing it over to other, better, private citizens who will make the city richer, and to add insult to injury, they want to pay them less than fair market value- the market value for what their house was 5 years ago. Then, to add insult to injury, they intend to charge them ‘rent’ for living in their own property for the several years they were fighting the city from taking their property.
Unbelievable. I want to see more, and I want to see this verified, and then, if true, stopped.
(h/t Captain Ed)
More here:
The homeowners could soon be served with eviction notices, which is justified by the court ruling. But the rent is something else. For some, it comes to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Kelo, whose name is on the landmark case, could owe $57,000. “I’d leave here broke,” she told the Fairfield County Weekly. “I could probably get a large-size refrigerator box and live under the bridge.”
In a letter to the homeowners’ lawyer a year ago, the development corporation justified its behavior by saying, “We know that your clients did not expect to live in city-owned property for free.”
Well, they might have expected not to be bullied for exercising their right to be heard in court.
News of the city’s heavy handed tactics should add to the unusual national backlash that has followed the Supreme Court’s ruling. The court said state and local governments can seize homes, not just for a public purpose such as building roads or schools, but also for someone else’s private profit if the city’s economic future is at issue.
I think we can take USA Today as a confirmation.
A Tragic Tale
If you want yet another example why I think it is simply wrong to bring up the divorce issue in the Sheehan case, read this terrible story of what happened to a family who lost a loved one on 9/11.
The loss of a loved one is often a treagedy that just rips families apart.
Worm
Looks like a particularly nasty worm is attacking the InterTrons:
A fast-moving computer worm Tuesday attacked computer systems using Microsoft operating systems, shutting down computers in the United States, Germany and Asia.
Among those hit were offices on Capitol Hill, which is in the midst of August recess, and media organizations, including CNN, ABC and The New York Times. The Caterpillar Co. in Peoria, Illinois, reportedly also had problems.
A small number of computers in an administrative office at San Francisco International Airport also crashed, but they were not essential to the airport’s operation, spokesman Mike McCarron said.
The FBI said the computer problems did not appear to be part of any widespread attack.
While the worm affects primarily Windows 2000, it also can affect some early versions of Microsoft XP, said Johannes Ullrich, chief technology officer of the Sans Institute, a network security firm based in Jacksonville, Florida.
Symptoms include the repeated shutdown and rebooting of a computer.
Just so you know.