Bystander Ethics
Read this right away. Isn't that really everything we need to know about Donald Rumsfeld?

Victory...?
For those with a strong stomach only, the President's 38-page "strategy" for victory in Iraq. (pdf)

Here is the President's statement from this morning.

And here is all you need to know about it really, Senator Reid's response:

Just two weeks ago, a bipartisan majority of the United States Senate registered a vote of no confidence in the president's current policy in Iraq. Democrats and Republicans called on the president to change course and release a strategy for success in Iraq with specific benchmarks by which the progress could be measured. Today, President Bush failed to meet this call. Instead, he recycled his tired rhetoric of `stay the course' and once again missed an opportunity to lay out a real strategy for success in Iraq that will bring our troops safely home.

After nearly 1,000 days of war in Iraq, our troops, their families, and the American people deserve more than just a Bush-Cheney public relations campaign. They deserve a clear strategy with military, economic and political measures to be met in order to successfully complete our mission. The president's continued refusal to provide that plan does nothing to support our troops or their families. Simply staying the course is no longer an option, we must change the course. We can do better.

New Bush policy. Same as the old Bush policy. Why do they even bother?

Cry for help? What kind?
Can one of yous edumacated in psychology (I know you're out there) please enlighten me. I don't pretend to be an informed student of the human mind, but my brain can't even come close to this:

A Fayetteville principal who claimed that two armed, masked men assaulted him in his school office earlier this month falsified the attack and inflicted the injuries on himself, including possibly cutting off part of his tongue, authorities said yesterday.

As little sense as this local story originally made (masked men attacking an elementary school principal in his office?), this makes even less. And of course, everyone who knows him claims he's a model of competence and normalcy. Beloved by the community. Great with kids. He just cut off part of his tongue and bruised himself mercilessly for...attention? pity? free trip to the hospital? A little help here. What's the standard mumbo-jumbo for this kind of stupefying behavior?

Milestone Delayed
Perhaps nobody will want to be the Governor to execute the 1000th person in the US since the death penalty was reinstated. On the heels of the recent chilling Houston Chronicle story that established a likelihood that Texas executed an innocent man 12 years ago, Virgina Governor, and possible Presidential candidate Mark Warner has commuted the sentence of the man set to be #1000. The honor now belongs to North Carolina.

Amy Sullivan's conclusion may be a bit of wishful thinking, but I suppose a change has to begin somewhere if it's going to occur at all.

As TalkLeft's Jeralyn Merritt points out, 1000 since 1976 averages out to one state-sponsored killing every 10 days. For 28 years. Truly shameful.

Bailout Begins
Now....we've got a plan to win.

MEDIA MONDAY
What have you been watching, reading, listening to?

Smithsonian Weblog
Via Kevin Drum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum has a new blog: Eye Level.

Lessig on Google Book Search
Have you tried the book search? It's absolutely incredible. And because it's so cool, naturally folks (Authors Guild (AG), and Association of American Publishers (AAP)) are whining infringement. This is more than a week old, but Professor Lessig argues for Google Book Search:

The AAP and AG say they believe in “fair use.” If that’s so, then they must believe that someone has a right to make money using fairly the work of others. If that’s so, then they must believe that someone has the right to fairly use the work of others without permission. And so if that’s so, then if Google Book Search is fair use. not only is Google doing nothing wrong. Google is, from the perspective of the authors and publishers, doing something extra nice — giving them the permission to opt out of the index.

So the only question is whether Google’s use is “fair.” Now anyone who knows anything about the law knows that’s a hard question. Reasonable people may differ about it. But the frustration I consistently feel with the position of the AAP and AG is that the reasons they offer for why Google’s use is not fair would mean that practically no use would be fair.

On a similar note, Matt Yglesias has been taking up the drumbeat of the public domain in recent days (here and a followup here), and gotten foolish criticism in his comments for it. Atrios jumps in here.

Year-End List
The NYTimes has its list of 100 notable books for 2005.

Trailer Watch
The most exciting part of my experience seeing Walk the Line (recommendation below) was a couple of previews: one for Steven Spielberg's Munich, the story of the aftermath of the 1972 Olympic murders in which the perpetrators are hunted. For Munich, Spielberg is forgoing most all marketing efforts, believing the film--which is being called perhaps his best ever--will "speak for itself".

The second was Match Point, which bore the shocking revelation at the conclusion: A Woody Allen film. The scenes here looked like nothing we've ever seen from him, including his serious fare.

Article 19 Film Recommendation: Walk the Line
************* (13 out of 19)
Frankly, it was a bit boring, plus one truly ridiculous scene. It kept my attention but didn't do much with it. Still, impressive performances and the music was well done. I wish there had been a bit more emphasis on Cash's rebellion against the country industry, but what can you do.

Weekend Box Office
1. Harry Potter
2. Walk the Line
3. Yours, Mine, Ours
4. Chicken Little
5. Rent

Health Care for Hybrids
Senator Obama has introduced a bill that would offer a deal to US automakers: the government will pay the health care costs for their retirees if they will commit to spending half of that money developing more fuel efficient cars. Plus, they would not be allowed to offset those efficiencies with new less-efficient offerings as well (so, no unveiling that new super-Hummer with the new hybrid).

This strikes me as brilliant on a number of levels. For one, it calls Detroit's bluff (if it is one) in making retiree benefits the scapegoat for their unwillingness to invest in higher fuel standards. But more than that, I like this plan for moving the ball forward in shifting the health-care burden onto the government. You would think that businesses (especially responsible ones that provide decent benefits) would be out front arguing for a national health care system that would remove that financial and administrative load from their expense sheet.

If this bill passes, it could do as much or more in the long run for the fight to implement a sane health care program as it does to reduce our oil dependence.

Random Concern
My Snickers bar lists the following ingredients: "peanut, milk, egg, and soy products. May contain almonds."

Why the hell don't they know if it does or does not contain almonds?

Dissent
Ann Coulter is a lunatic. From her viewpoint, Americans can never question a war or suggest its conclusion. Her column responds to Rep. Murtha's courageous stand urging that it's time to begin withdrawing US troops from the heart of the fighting in Iraq.

The Democrats are giving aid and comfort to the enemy for no purpose other than giving aid and comfort to the enemy. There is no plausible explanation for the Democrats' behavior other than that they long to see U.S. troops shot, humiliated, and driven from the field of battle.

Now, one thing Ms. Coulter and I have in common is that neither of us has the slightest notion of what it's like to be in war, the winning side or the losing side, or to know what effect that war's debate has on morale or efficacy. And since I don't know, I'm glad to be the first to admit this, if it must be me: it may be true that those seeking to kill American troops are "comforted" by the notion that some of us here think the war is a bad idea that's going badly. I don't wish it, but it may be so. That doesn't mean the dissent is not worth it. Why are we going to let the emotions of violent anti-US "insurgents" dictate how Americans carry out our policy debates?

Giving ear to dissent toward an endeavor that is getting people killed is one powerfully important way we make sure the mission is worth it. The fact that (if it is a fact) bad people on the other side may enjoy it is far outweighed by our need to make sure there is an earnest and united sense that we are doing the right thing. In this case, we are not. And the country is gradually uniting around that realization.

But, while we're taking an accounting of who is and is not helping the enemy, how many bad decisions of the Pentagon and the Bush Administration have empowered, emboldened, enflamed and enhanced the efforts of anti-US insurgents? (Look no further than the fact that the majority of Iraqi people want us the hell out of there.) Those outrages far and away have done more to endanger US troops than any congressional speech or mass protest televized on Al-Jazeera.

This has got to be a joke
Michael Brown is starting a consulting firm...on disaster preparedness. What's next, Bill Buckner as infield coach, consulting on ground balls?

I'll leave the response to Josh Marshall:

[I]t seems that Brown's actual angle may be providing not generic emergency response consulting services but rather consulting services to incompetents who've been saddled with emergency preparedness responsibility and fear becoming national laughing stocks when they turn mid-size disasters in to full-on catastrophes through gross mismanagement.

This actually may be a solid and underserved niche Brown could cater to, though my understanding is that in such a learning process someone like Brown is generally referred to not as a 'consultant' but rather as 'specimen'.

And there's this TPM followup.

Guest Post from Kenny Byrd:
LEARNING, LIVING AND LEAVING A LEGACY ....
That was the famous tag line of e-mails written by a friend and class mate at Boston College Law School. November 23 marks the second anniversary of his tragic death. While many of us talked a good game about public interest and achieving social justice with our law degress, Arthur was busy walking the walk. He had no patience for setting up meetings to talk about societal problems, he wanted action! He comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable. In my health law class, he was fond of saying things like, "I don't care what the law book says, failing to provide health care for all violates a higher code," or "It's just not right!" I am quoting the entire Boston Globe obituary of Arthur below.

Arthur declined the offers of some classmates and teachers, and decided to live in a homeless shelter during his last year of law school. He wanted to live with the people he hoped to serve in his career. While the causes of death were unknown, there was some speculation by the media later that Arthur had engaged in drug use in the wake of coping with the death of a friend of his at the shelter. All I know is that he was a drum major for justice in a society that could use more. It is hard to do justice to the life of Arthur in one post.

On Dec. 6, 2005, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in FAIR v. Rumsfeld over a federal requirement that forces schools like BC Law to give red carpet treatment to military recuiters even though the military openly discriminates against gay, lesbian and bisexual students -- students that are friends of mine. One of the plaintiffs along with FAIR is a small group of students from BC Law that I belong to-- the Coalition for Equality. A small group of us formed this coalition to help BC stand by its principles of non-discrimination, even in the face of heavy-handed government tactics. One of our most committed members was Arthur and I can still hear him leading our cheers: "What do we want? -- Justice! When do we want it? -- Now!" In my mind's eye, Arthur is still rallying the saints; and if there is anyone victimized by discrimination in heaven, Arthur probably is organizing to take it on; and I'm sure he's using any other powers he has to give us a magical fifth vote on the Supreme Court. Let us all take special efforts to comfort the afflicted on this day, but Arthur would want equal time going to afflicting the comfortable. We miss you Arthur.

HEADLINE: ARTHUR HARRIS, 27, LAW STUDENT WHO LIVED WITH THE HOMELESS
BYLINE: By Gloria Negri, Globe Staff

BODY:
Arthur C. Harris could have lived near Boston College Law School, where he was a third-year student. He chose, instead, to live with the homeless at Long Island Shelter in Boston Harbor. For 10 months, he commuted by public transportation to the law school campus in Newton, telling friends that he stayed at the shelter to prepare for his future work with the needy, a pledge he made because of his own impoverished childhood in Alabama.

"I'm happy because I'm learning more about the struggles that confront the homeless," he e-mailed Norah Wylie, associate dean of students at the law school, who had expressed concern about his long commute. "This will make me a more successful advocate for the poor and disenfranchised."

Mr. Harris died at the shelter in his sleep on Nov. 23. He was 27. Wylie said she had been informed by the medical examiner's office that preliminary tests indicated he died of natural causes. Cheryl McCloud, spokeswoman for the Boston Public Health Commission, which operates the shelter, said an internal investigation of Mr. Harris's death is underway. Such an investigation is standard procedure for any death at the facility.

In Montgomery, Ala., where Mr. Harris was born, his mother, Mona Scott, said in a phone interview yesterday that she knew of no illness her son might have had. "He was somewhat overweight," she said. "He knew how to cook but didn't, and ate all that fast food instead." She recalled how excited he was about taking a hiatus from classes to go on the campaign trail next year with Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean.

"I saw my child as another Martin Luther King," Scott said. "He was thoughtful, a godly child, very respectful and listened to his mom. I always taught my kids [these] words to secure their lives: 'yes ma'am, yes sir; excuse me; may I? please; and thank-you.' Arthur abided by them all and took them all the way to Boston College."

The respect in which the college community held Mr. Harris was shown yesterday at a memorial service in the law school chapel. "Arthur was an incredible young man," said college spokesman Jack Dunn. "Rare is the person in this day and age so committed to his principles that he would choose to live in a homeless shelter to help improve the lives of the needy. He was an inspiration to everyone at BC Law."

"I was Arthur's professor," said Kent Greenfield. "But, like many of us here, I was also his student. I learned from him. I saw in him what it means to be a person of courage who never stands silent in the face of injustice."

In spite of adversity, Greenfield said, Mr. Harris "seemed to grow. He was a large man, and I do not mean his physical size. I mean that he possessed a substantial soul. It was as if he took to heart the advice of Rainer Maria Rilke, who advised a young friend that, 'We must accept our reality as vastly as we possibly can; everything, even the unprecedented, must be possible within it.'"

At BC, Mr. Harris worked on the Solomon Amendment Task Force, opposing the federal policy that forces colleges to allow military recruiters on campus if they want to continue receiving federal funds. He was a member of the Coalition for Equality and the Black Law Students Association.

Wylie said Mr. Harris had some scholarships at BC, and one summer he did an internship in Boston Juvenile Court. "Arthur was a passionate fighter against all kinds of discrimination," she said. "He was a sweet man who would tend to challenge people to do more to help others. He would always say, 'My grandfather says we're here on earth to give back to others.'"

Mr. Harris was one of three sons. Raising her family in public housing, Scott said, she worked as a housekeeper and cleaning lady to keep her children in school. In his law school application, Mr. Harris wrote how, as an African-American in a poverty stricken area, he and his family were often the targets of police profiling and searches, though they had done nothing wrong. "These experiences gave him the desire to fight for change and inspired him to work even harder to get the educational background he felt he needed to become an effective advocate for the poor and the homeless," said Nate Kenyon, a law school spokesman.

Scott said her son took her warning to heart, "to never take home a 'C, D, or E' on his report card, and won a full scholarship to the University of Alabama in Birmingham. At UAB, Mr. Harris was president of the Undergraduate Student Government Association and led the Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society. He was elected to the Alpha Kappa Delta International Society and the Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars.

While at UAB, Mr. Harris was working 35 hours per week at two jobs, at a bookstore and a pharmacy. He graduated in 2000. "Arthur wanted to become a voice for change," Kenyon said, "and assist in urban renewal efforts to revitalize the inner cities of America."

Wylie said Mr. Harris had a tag line for his emails: "Living, learning and leaving a legacy." Besides his mother, Mr. Harris leaves his grandfather, Sidney, who helped raise him, and brothers Preslay and Marcus Thomas, all of Montgomery. Another memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. tomorrow in People's Baptist Church in Montgomery. Burial will be in New Elam Cemetery in Bullock County, Ala.

Murtha on Meet the Press
If you didn't get a chance to see Rep. Murtha on MTP Sunday you should read the transcript. Here's a taste, responding to Russert's showing video of Cheney questioning his backbone:

REP. MURTHA: Well, I tell you, Cheney's a friend of mine. We work very closely together. He was a good secretary of Defense, but he's wrong. They should have fired people. The president should be furious with this--the people that work for him giving him bad intelligence. We spend more on intelligence than any country in the world. We spend more on intelligence than the whole world spends together and our intelligence was wrong. There's no question we're going in the wrong direction and we're not winning. The incidents have increased and the economic indicators--oil, which was supposed to pay for all of this, is below prewar levels. There's nothing that's happening that shows any sign of success.

And the biggest problem is this illusion that--I remember going to Iraq a month or so after the invasion when they said it was all over. And one of the members said to Ambassador Bremer, "What do you think about this cleric named Sistani?" And he turned to his expert, and you know what she said? She said, "Oh, he's just a minor cleric." Now, two weeks later that guy had 100,000 people in the street. That's the kind of information they were acting on. They've been overly optimistic and illusionary about their policy. We got to--this is not a war of words, this is a real war where people are getting killed. Fifteen thousand people have been wounded, and half of them are desperately wounded, blinded, without their arms.

I mean, it breaks my heart when I go out there and see these kids. I see wives who can't look at their husbands because they've been so disfigured. I saw a young fella that was paralyzed from the neck down and his three children were standing there crying with his wife and his mother. So this is a real war, which--we have to find a solution. We--and since there's no progress, we've got to find a way to let the Iraqis take over.

MEDIA MONDAY
What have you been watching, listening to, reading?

Article 19 CD Recommendation: Fiona Apple--Extraordinary Machine
I've not been a fan in the past of her sultry anger schtick. But I respect that she writes her own songs and that they are not always right out of the pop cookie cutters. But her new release is mostly fabulous. If you're scoring at home, and good for you if you are, the tracks especially worth hearing are 1, 5, 6, 12. The title track (1) is an astonishing Jon Brion orchestration for a fun and light song. Brion's production of the waltz (12) that closes the album is also the perfect setting for the tune. "Tymps" (5) is an incredibly complicated lose-your-place chord progression. And "Parting Gift" (6) has the best lyrics on the album:

I opened my eyes while you were kissing me once (more than once),
and you looked as sincere as a dog.
Just as sincere as a dog does,
when it's the food on your lips with which he's in love.

Gotta love that determination not to dangle a preposition.

Weekend Box Office
1. Harry Potter and the whatever
2. Walk the Line
3. Chicken Little
4. Derailed
5. Zathura

What the hell is wrong with Bush?
Atrios has the pictures. Those are some nice and dignified facial expressions.

C-Span Smackdown
All hell has broken loose on the floor of the House. Republicans are pathetic. It started with Bush and Cheney's decision last week to once again demonize any Democrat questioning the War and paint them as unpatriotic. And it's trickled down to the dregs of GOP jerkoffs. C-Span tonight is more grotesque than any reality TV.

Stay Out [UPDATED]
House Repubs are trying to push another support-the-troops/war vote. I say Dems should let only Republicans vote on this one, if they're not going to have the nerve to vote collectively against it.

[UPDATE: Debate is going on now. Kos has Murtha's reasonable resolution paired with the GOP version/interpretation that they'll be voting on instead. Our Congress is ridiculous and shameful.]

Murtha on Cheney
"I like guys who've never been there that criticize us who've been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done."
(stolen directly from TPM)

Not a Moment Too Soon
Some of you who don't live in the 'Ville may still be interested in this local news:
"Baptists no longer will fund Belmont".

This Week
...is National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, organized by the National Coalition of the Homeless (NCH), Students against Hunger, and other groups. Just so you know. (via Street Prophets)

Alito v. Warren
Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's 1985 job application to be Assistant Attorney General under President Reagan is generating lots of interest because of his stated opposition to the Roe v. Wade decision. But reading the entire document (you can read it here) shows another area that should be of concern to church-state separationists. Alito writes:

In college, I developed a deep interest in constitutional law, motivated in large part by disagreement with Warren Court decisions, particularly in the areas of criminal procedure, the Establishment Clause, and reapportionment.

I will leave it to others to wonder about Alito's problem with the one-man, one-vote principle established in the reapportionment decisions. But what were the Warren Court decisions with respect to the Establishment Clause?

In Engel v. Vitale (1962), the Court held by a 6-1 vote that school-sponsered prayer in public schools, even if basically voluntary and non-denominational, was unconstitutional.

Abington Township v. Schempp (1963) determined--with an 8-1 vote--that public schools were not the place or time for officially sanctioned and organized Bible reading. Here it was determined that to meet Establishment Clause criteria of neutrality, activities must have "secular purpose" and that its "primary effect" must neither promote nor inhibit a particular religion.

Exactly which of these does Judge Alito have a problem with? Would he like to keep school-sponsored prayer or Bible readings in public schools?

His reference is not specific. Someone should ask him just what his beef with these important decisions might be. And if he's changed his mind about them, it would be nice to know when that happened, and why.