Quick Hits

I'm a little disappointed in myself for not hitting a bunch of random topics in the last month or so. There really is too much in the office to do these days. So I'm not going to get into these things as much as I'd like and this may still end up too long.

1. Waterboarding is torture. Anything where you are drowing or causing someone under your control to reasonably believe they are going to drown that's torture. And as mentioned before, torture has been proven note to work. Torture is properly illegal. Even if I had a guy with a nuclear bomb in New York city and I knew torture would get him to reveal the location in time, I'd torture him, but I'd acknowledge it was illegal and face the consequences for it. I wouldn't try and pretend that it's always been legal. The reason that this is an issue at all is if the prospective AG speaks the truth and says waterboarding is torture, he'll need to go prosecute people who have done it and Junior will have to pardon even more clowns.

2. It's bad enough that over population, poor planning and greenhouse gassing have mean people are somewhat responsible for the huge fires down in LA. It's sadder to think that some of these were intentionally set. What's that about? My family down there hasn't suffered too much, but they have lost power sporadically.

3. Governments at the federal and state level have responded much better to the fires then they did to Katrina. The reasons for that are many, but one that can't truly be dismissed is race. I know you don't want to believe it, but it's true.

According to a recent Harvard study, Katrina victims are displaying unusual patterns of post tramatic stress disorder. Usually as time goes on, the stress levels and the number of people stressed out subsides a bit. Makes sense. For some reason Katrina victims are suffering more today and in greater numbers than two years ago. I realize it's a huge project, but I can't help thinking still more could be done.

4. If you didn't catch the news, FEMA held a fake news conference to discuss the fires in Southern California. No reporters showed up on such short notice so FEMA employees ask itself questions like "Are you happy with FEMA's response so far?" Rather audacious. But I think it's somewhat symptomatic of how Junior views the media. It's just something to be manipulated to score points for his side, truth be damned. And however much the media made a stink about this, they did not make enough.

5. Are you an enemy combatant? It seems like if they have enough evidence against you, you'll probably get treated like a US citizen. If they don't have enough or if they have evidence that could never be tested in court, you're then an enemy combatant and locked away without jury, trial, or access to an attorney or even charges. That seems to be the way the argument is going.

6. Blackwater "contractors" granted immnity. Again, the law seems to be whatever is most convenient.