First Looks category archive

Persons who act in your and my name betray American values.

ASZ.

IEDs via Phillybits.

It ain’t always what you expect.

Andrew Cohen on corporate law-breakers (emphasis added):

An immunity-for-intelligence quid pro quo is “unacceptable,” said Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and ranking Republican Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). Meanwhile, Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who is a member of both committees, told The Post that briefings he received from his Intelligence Committee aide, who had reviewed the documents extensively, suggested that the surveillance program is illegal. “It[‘s] an executive power grab that is not justified by the statute or by the Constitution,” Feingold said.

Lawmakers must ensure that their new surveillance bill has better judicial and congressional oversight than the previous version. They should also consider whether there is a compelling reason to protect the assets of big corporations at the expense of individual privacy. This story, though, is rapidly becoming a symbol for all that is wrong with the legal war on terror.

Looming Out of the Fog That Same Evening:

Glenn Greenwald, via Atrios.

The introduction to the World Series, with silly actors in stupid scenes spliced into cuts of real ball players doing real things, is one of the most painful piles of pitiful perflufful I’ve ever seen.

But it is typical of an organization that likes to Make Stuff Up.

Had to turn on the heat today.

This is beyond words:

A friendly 4-year-old golden retriever, Kelsey’s natural reaction to strangers was to greet them and wait to be petted.

But a man in a white shirt who encountered the dog Monday afternoon didn’t do that, New Castle County police said. He strangled Kelsey beside a tall pine tree outside the Centreville-area home where her owners live.

Phillibits has the details.

Redacted.

Which, of course, they wouldn’t have been if Democrats sank to the civilty level of Republicans, who casually and routinely question the patriotism of patriots.

Help compensate the lady for a lost career, lost retirement, and betrayal by her employers.

Tomorrow, Tangier Restaurant, 18th and Lombard, Philadelphia, Pa.

Be there or be square.

Time served?

Susie.

End the waterboarding of civil liberties.

More here.

Go here.

Via Brendan.

I wonder whether the Revolutionary War would have turned out differently if the Continental Army had known about this tactic:

The Burmese military is facing an unexpected threat from female opponents to its regime – a deluge of panties dispatched to the country’s embassies in a “in a culturally insulting gesture of protest” against its recent crackdown on protestors.

According to AP the Panties for Peace initiative is not merely symbolic, since the the group behind the campaign – Lanna Action for Burma – claims “superstitious generals, especially junta leader General Than Shwe… believe that contact with women’s underwear saps them of power”.

We might be remembering Betsy Ross in a whole nother way.

Ever since 9/11, we have watched Republican lawmakers help Mr. Bush shred the Constitution in the name of fighting terrorism. We have seen Democrats acquiesce or retreat in fear. It is time for that to stop.

Succintly put, the Current Federal Administration betrays the ideals of the Founders and, clearly, has no clue as to what the United States of America is about.

It is not about making the rich richer and the poor poorer.

It is about a dream of liberty and equality and a government of laws, not men.

Because he stands up for the Constitution with deeds.

Get your credit cards out.

Go here.

Listen to an interview here.

Joey Bishop, the long-faced comedian and the last surviving member of the Rat Pack, Frank Sinatra’s celebrated retinue of the 1960’s, died Wednesday night at his home in Newport Beach, Calif. He was 89.

His death was of multiple causes, said his longtime publicist, Warren Cowan.

Mr. Bishop was the least flamboyant of the Rat Pack and no match for the others — Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin and Sinatra himself — in their dedication to hell-raising.

For you youngsters out there, here’s more on Joey Bishop.

$%%$#^(^%*&^*:

Whether cursing at home can mean jail time has become a court matter in a West Scranton neighborhood.

A 31-year-old mother of four, Dawn Herb, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a disorderly conduct charge that can carry up to a 90-day jail sentence, in connection with a profane tirade she let fly when a toilet backed up on Oct. 11.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Valerie Burch argues that to criminalize cursing and cite someone for using obscene language in their own home is unconstitutional.

Patrolman Gerald Tallo argues that Herb’s cursing could be heard throughout the neighborhood, creating a public disturbance.

Addendum, Later That Same Day:

Talk of the Nation on profanity.

I’ve been sitting here for three days (with some breaks, of course) looking at this article.

I don’t have the energy the blog it. Just please go read it.