Osama Bin There Done That

Gosh it seems like we've heard this before:

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall September 23, 2006 06:58 AM

But even though we've heard it before, remember, you heard it here first. Unless you didn't.

And if it's true this time, it's one less October Surprise in Rove's bag, and there's no way Bush can claim letting him die of natural causes as a victory. Right? He asked, hoping his optimism would not get the better of him on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November?

And, from our non-sequitur silver-lining department: Perhaps it will inspre the American Ryder Cup Team, who need all the help they can get, and whom we are leaving the keyboard to watch right now, in a vain attempt to put all this international political intrigue aside for just a few hours.

First Amendment RIP

Okay, had anyone asked Standing Eight back in 04-05, we'd have said that the right thing for Judy Miller to do would be to give up what Fitzy wanted her to give, because a) the fabric of our republic was at issue, and b) her sources had given her information which, while 'fit to print' also turned out to be false, as in lies.

Still, she gets a few points in our book for sticking by her guns, and now, with the '04 election not-all-that-safely behind us (and BushCo,) we know what she knew, or thought she knew, at the time she thought she knew it.

But this: Silence means prison, Judge tells reporters, is not that. There is no excuse at all for these reporters to be in prison. It is patently ridiculous that a judge or prosecutor even asked them to reveal their sources. This is baseball. Are we going to send Martha Stewart (back,) to prison for failure to reveal her apple pie recipe? Betsy Ross exhumed at displayed in the town square on a pike for not giving up her pattern for the American Flag?

We would go on, but we seem to be sliding rather precipitously down some sort of slope. Gosh we hadn't even noticed it was there.

Bad news, and bad business for the news business.

Vote or Die(bold)

This was sent to us by alert and loyal reader Dan Mullin, who may be the only alert and loyal reader we have. We don't get a great many reader requests/suggestions, in fact you could count them on a bad shop teacher's bad hand. So forthwith:
Hotel Minibar Keys Open Diebold Voting Machines

And from the inestimable and esteemed Dr./Mr. Mullin:

"The more I hear about electronic voting the less I am impressed. Technology for technology's sake in my opinion. The belief that digitization is the solution to every problem is poorly thought out. [ed.: In fact beliefs are rarely "thought out" at all, poorly or no, which is the problem with belief. qv Sam Harris] The 2000, 2002, and 2004 elections expanded the market for electronic voting machines when it should have expanded the market for valid and reliable voting procedures. The former does not necessarily have anything to do with the latter in my opinion."

He's right. Voting rights as an umbrella issue is going to be extremely important in this country over the (say 15 year,) short haul, and of supreme importance worldwide this century. It's a complex issue, one that merits having whole blogs/papers/hours of TV coverage devoted to it, and if the 2000 election didn't prove that to the media powers that be, it's hard to imagine what would.

The sad fact is that at some point voting is going to have to be digital in order to be relevant at all (see Starship Troopers, Earth by David Brin and Zardoz, among others for good takes on the future of techno-democracy,) and that right now is not that point.

However, as a caution against thinking that Diebold is the golden goose of fixing democracy, our little bit of high-powered political experience indicates that 90% of elections are stolen well before election day, and that tinkering with the voting technology itself would be a last ditch effort.

And there is some dirty validity to offering the nation the choice of a party that tries hard to follow the rules and a party that plays every angle, propagandizes every issue, and shows a willingness to cheat to win. Or perhaps we've just been watching too much "Lost" on DVD this week.

Follow-up on the fixed trial:

Last week we brought you this tidbit on Saddam's trial, and apparently the "prime minister of Iraq" (read: The American marionetter who pulls the PM's strings,) reads Standing Eight, because check this out:

Chief Judge in Hussein's Genocide Trial Removed - New York Times

And where would he have learned about it if not here?

You know, I heard that GWB also said Saddam wasn't a dictator, maybe our Prime Minister could remove Bush from his post. Now we just need a Prime Minister. I think Tony Blair has some free time coming up.

Danger, Danger Josh Marshall:

When you're reading (or more likely, watching/hearing,) about "common article three" over the next few days, keep this in mind:

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall September 14, 2006 03:12 PM

Of course, you'll also have to keep in mind that Josh's point here, while excellent, is nuanced, which means a) dems will pay the price if they try to make it, and b) the current commander in chief will 'pretend' not to understand such subtle logic if confronted with it, and many people will believe his 'pretending.'

This is the country after all where Fox just dropped a major movie (if you call Mike Judge writing and Luke Wilson starring 'major,' which I do,) about a future-America full of stupid people, because a few test audiences were too stupid to get the joke. (See "Idiocracy" on google or wikipedia for more info.) God, I want to see that so bad.

And, to all you stupid people, don't start writing in complaining to me. As if you could. The First Amendment guarantees nothing so much as our freedom to be ignorant. I, for example, am as free to be ignorant of O'Reilly, Hannity and Limbaugh as you are free to be ignorant of grammar, logic and the 90% of the planet that isn't America. And we're both 'free to be you and me.' Within reason.

Newspapers making a comeback?

After weeks with the two big papes doing little of note, each has an important article today. As usual, BushCo have managed to get these unflattering stories buried in Saturday's paper, which no one reads. (Anytime Bush gives a Friday press conference, you can be sure he's going to say some extra-crazy shit, and today was no exception:)

GOP Infighting on Detainees Intensifies - washingtonpost.com

And from the NyTi.

You may have noticed our first 'profanity' above, and we can only say that it's about damn time.

It's a real trial tryin' to fix this trial.

First one of Saddam's Judges resigned, now the new guy seems to be his biggest fan, or at least an apologist:

Judge Expresses View That Hussein Was Not a Dictator - New York Times

Ah, well...the show-trial must go on.

You got sports in my politics!

No, you got politics in my sports!

Claire McCaskill, brilliant (and southern,) enough to be our first female president:

Political Wire: In Missouri, a Touchdown for McCaskill

E. J. sees the Dems as 'half-full...'

And not 'of themselves':

E. J. Dionne Jr. - Democrats Answer Cheney - washingtonpost.com

Frankly, he's trying to put lipstick on a donkey and tell you it's a pig, or something. And God bless him for trying to sell the idea that Dems are worth their weight in shinola, but we for one will believe it when they actually take back one house of congress, which should be happening sometime before 2018, but first we have to make it to 2018. Which, good luck.

Standing Eight oddsmakers still hold the notion of a 1-house Dem takeback as a 3 to 1 dog. We're pulling for Webb in VA, and Whatsisname in PA, but mainly b/c Santorum and Allen are so loathsome. If you think we're wrong, take our action. We will put our money where our e-mouth is. To a point. We'll even let you count Leiberman and Lamont as Dems.

Fighting them at our embassies over there

So you can continue to believe we are not fighting them here:

Blasts heard at foreign embassies in Syria - Yahoo! News

Hard to tell whether this will be big news tomorrow (Tuesday,) but aren't our foreign embassies, strictly speaking, really a part of "over here"? Am I being too cute?

And isn't the big news here that we even have an embassy in Syria? As evil as they're supposed to be, what with Bush accusing them of fronting Hezbollah and all, what's the point of an embassy there if not to be a tantalizing target?

Or perhaps that's just revealing our own stupidity. These and many more are the reasons we try to focus on domestic politics here at the Eight.

Republicans Revealed to be Hypocrites, Zero out of 6 Billion are Surprised

Turns out Clinton wanted to do a lot of the wiretapping things that Bush eventually did, but instead of "just doing it," he actually asked congress to help with the law, and the GOP congress, well, cock-blocked him, (one of many.)

AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth

So a) Maybe if that congress hadn't been so anti-Clinton, 9-11 wouldn't have happened, and b) memo to George Bush: a Nike slogan does not make a good domestic policy. At least until Nike unveils their new "Uphold Your Constitution" campaign. (Which actually could work, since constitution can mean general health, and ostensibly Nikes are for working out, not just for wearing as status symbols.)

Thanks to Aravosis (americablog) for the great background.
And thanks to Orrin Hatch and crew for 9-11, we really appreciate your love for our country, dillweed.