"If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you're disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. Enlist in our Armed Forces. Become a teacher. Enter the ministry. Run for public office. Feed a hungry child. Teach an illiterate adult to read. Comfort the afflicted. Defend the rights of the oppressed. Our country will be the better, and you will be the happier. Because nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself."

MCCAIN HEARTS COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS ZOMG!

Posted at September 4, 2008 10:51 PM in response to McCain Speech: Smothering Palin's Sizzle?

And just for the record, yes, I have actually had a police officer--in DeRidder, Louisiana--threaten to beat me half to death with a piece of PVC pipe as I was handcuffed spread-eagled between an iron ring and a door handle.

I complained to the local police, the state police and the FBI, all to no avail. I contacted the ACLU--they weren't interested because I was a white guy.

Extremely frustrating, yes.

But did it make me want to live under martial law?

Um, no.

Posted at September 4, 2008 8:29 PM in response to New Complaint Against Palin on Trooper-Gate

Certainly you may ask that question, but it is an irrelevant question. Even if Wooten slaughtered the entire population of Wasilla with his bare hands, raping and stealing as he went, it would still be an abuse of power--and just downright un-American--for the governor to act as judge, jury and executioner.

And please let's not forget that Wooten is not running to be in charge of this country. He was never in and will never be in a position to start wars and send thousands of people off to their deaths. When you have someone in that position is is CRITICAL that they not ever, no not ever, ever, ever, NEVER for ANY REASON WHATSOEVER, abuse that office to settle a vendetta.

Posted at September 4, 2008 8:24 PM in response to New Complaint Against Palin on Trooper-Gate

Are you joking? This is the United States of America.

By that logic, if I shot your mother your first question would be "Well, let's not rush to judgement--what did Mom do to deserve getting shot?"

Look, abuse of power is abuse of power. There is no justification for it. The president cannot send the Secret Service to kill someone who rapes his daughter. Yeah, maybe the guy deserved it. That's not the point. Executive officers are not the law. This isn't a monarchy. We don't have martial law. And we don't want it, thanks.

Posted at September 4, 2008 7:30 PM in response to New Complaint Against Palin on Trooper-Gate

"Race issues didn't scare a significant number of white voters away even in the deep south."

is just crazy talk, btw. If you think the middle-class white people are going to the same polling places as the poor, angry black people I have some real estate in New Orleans to sell you.

Besides which, they might be angry, but they know full well if they get too excited in a public place some white cops are going to shoot them. That's not an exaggeration; that's the truth. So. White people in the deep south fear angry black people alone at night, after certain college sports events, and otherwise not so much.

Posted at May 4, 2008 3:26 AM in response to Dems Capture Long-Held GOP House Seat In Louisiana

"Cazayoux was losing until they counted the Baton Rouge votes which were heavily AA."

Well, it's a little more complicated than that. Baton Rouge has the bulk of the people in the area. The near outlying areas tend to be "white flight" suburbs, which tend to be Republican. Baton Rouge is a huge college town and Obama has lots of support at the college level. Plus folks in Baton Rouge tend to be better educated and more liberal than folks in the surrounding areas.

Which isn't to say race isn't a factor, but the city vs. country, city vs. suburb, college town dynamics are all in play in Baton Rouge, as well.

All that said, I recall running into strong Obama support from the old white guy set in rural Louisiana waaay back last year when Obama couldn't get endorsements from black politicians because they didn't take him seriously and the meme of the moment was "not black enough". Reverend Wright cleared that one up, eh?

Posted at May 4, 2008 3:14 AM in response to Dems Capture Long-Held GOP House Seat In Louisiana

The intriguing thing here for Mr. Gonzales is that he has a choice. He can go out like this, a skid mark on the underwear of history. Or. He can turn it around and become a national hero by taking down the Bushies. This is America, the land of "any publicity is good publicity". He can take it from here to governor of something if he plays it right.

Posted at April 14, 2008 3:41 PM in response to Wanted: Disgraced Former Administration Official with Zero Credibility

D'oh wrote all that before seeing the comments about the Regents and remembering Cal is public. Not fully awake yet. But. Point about demonstrating still stands.

Posted at April 12, 2008 5:13 PM in response to Berkeley Law Dean: Yoo Was Not The Decider

Lots of interesting points here, but I think it probably is as straightforward as the dean says. It really is not easy to fire any employee of a large, well-respected educational institution like Berkeley. I used to be a manager at an Ivy League school and I had a part-time worker that hadn't shown up to work in a month. I learned from other sources that he had a new job elsewhere. I told the people at our front desk to let him know if he did show up that we had no work for him to do. Ten minutes later our executive director came bursting through my office door in a panic, wanting to know if I told this guy he couldn't come back to work. He explained to me that even though we were in an at-will employment state, the University requires extensive documentation and warnings and second chances and waiting periods before terminating any employee. In my case it wasn't a big deal, I just had to track the guy down and get him to sign a resignation. But getting rid of a tenured professor that doesn't want to go? Hoo boy!

First off, you have to get the rest of the tenured faculty on board. And they are going to resist anything they see as possibly restricting their own freedom. Now, maybe in this case they would get together and decide that the torture issue trumps freedom. It's hairy, though, because as many folks pointed out, this deed did not occur within his academic context. So, punishing him within his academic context for something he did outside of it may present a hard sell. Where is that line? Do we start firing professors for drunk driving?

In a setting like this the tenured faculty is more important to the success of the institution than the administrators, which is a well-understood dynamic. Acting outside of a consensus is rare.

Someone mentioned "selling drugs" as a reason to be fired. Not so, actually. Our entire policy on illegal drugs was that if an employee was convicted of selling drugs *on campus* then that incident must be reported to one's supervisor. There were, however, no guidelines for managers on how to handle that situation. Lesser and off-campus offenses weren't even on the radar.

Now, if we can get past trying to budge the institution of UC Berkeley we can focus on a real remedy for the situation, which is to incite the students and community (this is Berkeley, after all) to rise up, demonstrate, and make like such a living hell for the law school that the tenured faculty reaches a quick consensus and/or the esteemed Dr. Yoo beats his own hasty retreat.

I live in Emeryville about six blocks from Berkeley. I'm busy but I could help organize something.

Posted at April 12, 2008 4:57 PM in response to Berkeley Law Dean: Yoo Was Not The Decider

Heh, suntzu, I think what's she's saying is that in the general she expects lots of Republican women to break for her at the polls in a grand showing of female unity. Whereas even if all of the black Republicans vote for Obama it will be statistically insignificant.

"That's what convention committees are *for*, deciding the President of the United States. Duh."

Clinton/Madonna '08! Vote for which Spice Girl will get which Cabinet seat on the next episode of American Celebrity Deathspiral. Only on Fox.

Posted at March 30, 2008 1:02 PM in response to Obama: Hillary "Can Run As Long As She Wants"