Power Struggle In NYC

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/12/31/opinion/when-new-york-city-police-walk-off-the-job.html?ref=opinion&_r=2&referrer=

It will be interesting to see what happens in the latest power struggle between the police union and its members and the mayor.  The NYPD has won most of its confrontations with majors, including Rudy Giuliani whom they tussled with in the '90s.

But I think the climate is different now.  Crime is down and awareness of police lethality is up.  I'm not sure that they will win this time.

But the idea of a police slow down is not going to win them many supporters.

I'm Kind Of A Big Deal

I am a finalist of sorts in the Swift Memorial Roundup.  It is here.

I do feel weird about celebrating that post, because of what "inspired" it.  It was about a year ago exactly that we learned of Zoe's death, may she rest in peace.

Known Knowns and Known Unknowns

http://www.vox.com/2014/12/30/7467913/economic-confidence-positive

So, the mental and emotional recession is finally over.  We know that people tend to hang on to economic perceptions after things have already changed.  The Petite Depression of 2008 really began in 2007.  And it was largely over - under economic definitions - by 2010.  But so many other parts of the economy - wages especially - were stagnant.

It felt like crap.

The fallout from financial crises are often long and miserable, because the entire financial system is out of whack.  Plus you add bad policy like Europe did and you can drag this out forever.  But they do eventually end.

America emerged quicker, ironically because the US central bank embraced inflationary policies while the European central bank listened to those stupid Austrians.

But the final piece to click into place was the combination of falling unemployment - which will begin to put upward pressure on wages - and the relaxation of the "energy choke collar".

My own pet theory, backed by absolutely no data analysis, is that energy cost is the single most important factor in economic health in the modern world.

Which is why cheap, renewable energy is arguably the most important economic issue facing the world.  Every kWh produced by wind or solar is a kWh not produced by lighting hydrocarbons on fire.  You spend the sunk cost and then when it's paid off you have incredibly cheap energy.  And that leaves more money to be placed in people's bank accounts.

This Is Really Good

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/read-nashville-police-chief-tells-pro-cop-critic-respect-protesters

This guy is a great police chief.

I'm guessing he's doomed...

Done

Well, the Falcons are done.  Again.

Thanks, Obama!

NYPD Bruise

I understand that the NYPD feel they are owed some sort of special status by virtue of their job.  Police are an important part of a functioning modern society.

However, regular citizens - even the dark skinned ones - believe that they are entitled not to be killed by the police, not to leave in fear of the police, not to kowtow before police authority.

That Mayor De Blasio could say these things, namely that his black-skinned son should be careful when dealing with the police, and this would cause enough outrage that they would turn their back on him during a memorial service, suggests once more that the police don't understand what the phrase "public servant" means.

And that's what's so scary about all this.  The police no longer see themselves as public servants but as master of the public.

NSA Document Dump

The NSA dropped an FOIA document load on Christmas.  In it, we discover that probably the biggest problem is that people in the NSA are people.  So they do illegal things like spy on their ex and pass around embarrassing personal information.

Less 1984 Big Brother and more the reality show Big Brother.

I hate to keep flagellating a theme, but the problem with our institutions is that people (cops, NSA agents, bankers, the torture regime) feel that laws don't really apply to them.  Laws are for little people.

That is incredibly corrosive to a democratic society.

The Things Made Out Like Bandits

Hope your Christmas brought you some of what you want and everything you truly needed.

May All Your Christmases Be Bright

Peace on earth.

Seriously, we could use some of that....

Martial Law

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/who-do-you-work-for

Listening even to a few minutes of cable news is enough to make me despair of American democracy.  Today, obviously, the topic was the tragic execution of two NYPD officers by a psychopath.  And the immediate politicization of that act.

Josh Marshall strikes to the heart of the troubling problem demonstrated here.  The police are public servants who feel themselves immune to the public they serve.  They see the populace - especially the black populace - as an enemy that must be subdued.  And this creates tensions, especially when a mayor like De Blasio basically points out this tension and gets eviscerated in the media by the police union head.

I would and have argued that police need a strong sense of legitimacy to do their jobs well.  Most white people feel the police are legitimate, so they usually comply with police requests (unless they're libertarians).  If police lose that sense of legitimacy, their jobs become much harder and what's more they become more dangerous.

I am putting myself squarely in the "I want fewer dead people" camp.  That includes kids with BB guns and police officers sitting in their squad car.  I don't distinguish.

Wind Power

http://www.vox.com/2014/12/22/7432407/wind-power-tax-credit

The attached article talks about how US wind power has fluctuated because it's dependent on federal tax subsidies and the Congress is such a hot mess right now that those subsidies come and go.

But what was really interesting was this map:

Texas is the big wind energy producer, which is mildly surprising.  Iowa makes sense, but the lack of wind in Montana is strange.  And then you have the Confederacy. While technically, Texas is part of the Confederacy, they are really just Texas, sui generis in so many ways.  And Texas does energy, so why not wind?

But we can see from the map how important state action is in producing wind energy.  And the South just isn't interested.

Some of this is simply Cleek's Law in action.  Since "liberals" like wind energy, we must be opposed.  Some of it is simply being so reflexively anti-government that they can't see the benefits of the government acting on this, despite the fact that the government does all SORTS of nice things for hydrocarbon industries.

Wind energy is somewhat expensive to start and then remarkably cheap to sustain.  After the turbines are up, there is no fuel beyond the weather.  It is a perfect example of long term thinking.  Build the turbines now and you reap the benefits later.

All of which leaves the environmental impact out of the equation.

And as we've seen, reducing the consumption of hydrocarbons - especially petroleum - is an excellent way to undermine authoritarian regimes without otherwise lifting a finger.

To me, the complete absence of wind power in the South is a perfect example of the blinkered, short-sighted political landscape of Red America.  It is not destiny - look at Texas, look at the Dakotas and Wyoming - and blue states, like my own Connecticut, sometimes lag behind (although I've seen some wind turbines in CT, so I don't know what gets you on that map).

But subsidizing wind power is such a no-brainer, it's tough to figure out what the hell people are thinking.

RIP, Joe Cocker

I went through a serious Joe Cocker phase in my youth.  In its own way, it's amazing he made it to 70.

This Is Why Journalists Make Shitty Historians

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/president-obamas-betrayal-of-the-cuban-people/2014/12/19/6b59b708-87a4-11e4-a702-fa31ff4ae98e_story.html

The WaPo - fluffing Neoconservative foreign policy since...well, forever - thinks that we shouldn't open to Cuba because China and Vietnam are still autocracies.  We have been open to those nations for about 25 years, if you mark it with Most Favored Nation status.

Are China and Vietnam free?  Of course not.  But there are signs and portents of democratic stirrings.  The CCP has allowed entrepreneurs to join.  While the Great Fire Wall of China still exists, most of my Chinese students can get around most of it when needed.

Newspapers exist in the 24 hour news cycle, a cycle which I think has done more harm to American policy making than anything else.  They can't tolerate anything but immediacy.

We are not opening to Cuba to have democracy there in 2016, but in 2026.  That's the long game, the game that historians see and Fred Hiatt can't.

SMH

On my Facebook feed appeared a post from some academic who has a degree of connection to someone I know.  She wrote the following:

Instead of getting all huffy with North Korea, I think we should thank them for having such a non-violent response to a movie that was, to say the least, in execrably poor taste, politically offensive and racist.

The writer is a professor at the New School, and pretty much becomes a caricature of the ivory-tower, liberal professor (although I'd describe her as Leftist, rather than liberal).  And let's leave aside the ridiculousness of her assertion that North Korea's response was non-violent.  They specifically threatened violence.

But I really worry that we are increasingly losing our ability to be offended without going off the deep end.  This is not a problem confined to the Left.  The freakout from the Right over protests by athletes against extra-judicial police killings is very similar.  So is the "War on Christmas".

We have become perpetually outraged and can't abide by anything that might whiff of offense.

That's pathetic.  We need to be strong enough to abide things that are offensive to us.  Otherwise we become infatuated with our own outrage.

Charming

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/resident-sleazebag

Rule of law....how does it work?

Goodbye "Stephen Colbert"

http://www.vox.com/2014/12/19/7420511/colbert-report-finale

I saw an incomplete list of the guest appearances.  For some reason, the inclusion of Robert Pinsky made me laugh the hardest.

The Authoritarian Right

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/12/torture-russia-and-conservative-dictator-envy.html

This is a well-written, well thought out exploration of how the Right in this country has fallen into an authoritarian mindset.

It gibes well with this piece by Martin Longman about how conservative "arguments" have no respect in academia.

The Republican party is broken.  And they control half the government.

Why Do We Think Ted Cruz Is A Smart Man?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ted-cruz-obama-cuba-statement

Cruz is this generation's Newt Gingrich, who was the previous generation's Henry Cabot Lodge, of whom it was said, "His mind was like the soil of his native New England: highly cultivated but barren."

Here, Cruz is either mouth-breathingly stupid or simply cynical beyond belief.  The latter is, of course, a possibility, but given his recent blunder in the Senate that allowed Obama and Reid to get a new Surgeon General and a dozen judges confirmed, I'd say the former explanation might make sense.

Cruz calls the Castro regime "totalitarian."  It's not, ok.  It doesn't have the ability to be totalitarian.  Totalitarian regimes control every facet of a country.  The Castro regime is certainly, brutally authoritarian - it is easily the worst regime in the western hemisphere.  But it's not totalitarian.  Not even close.  And we have diplomatic relations with far, far worse countries than Cuba.  Pakistan, for instance.  Or Vietnam.  Or Saudi Arabia, whom we consider our dear friend.  We have diplomatic relations with Russia, who just invaded Ukraine.

He then goes on to say the following:

"If history be our guide, the Castros will exploit that power to undermine America and oppress the Cuban people," he said. "First Russia, then Iran, now Cuba – this is one more very, very bad deal brokered by the Obama Administration.”

OK, no.

If "history be our guide" then greater connection between the United States and Cuba will lessen the ability of the Castros to control their populace.  The more Americans come and spend precious dollars in Cuba, the more capitalist they will become.  The more we flood their country with media, the less they will want to be told what to do by the Castros.

And as for "first Russia"....have you checked in on Putin's Russia, Senator Dipshit?  While the falling oil prices have hurt them, the sanctions - led by Obama - have crippled the Russian economy.  Putin's bargain with his populace, a modification of Deng Xiaoping's deal with the Chinese people after Tiananmen - you can be rich but not free - is falling to pieces.  If oil prices hadn't fallen, Russia wouldn't be suffering nearly as much, but the sanctions have crippled the Russian currency.

And similar sanctions have crippled the Iranian economy as well.  I'm fairly optimistic we will get a deal to end the Iranian nuclear program, and Senator Dipshit will go on Fox and say it's a bad deal, because totalitarian RussiaCubaCicero blah blah blah.

Ted Cruz is increasingly what Sarah Palin would sound like if she went to Harvard and Princeton.

I Take A Nap, Wake Up And The World Has Changed

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obama-united-states-cuba-embassy

America's Cuba policy has always been stupid.  I have never been sure if it was stupidity bread of fear, hatred or inertia, but I am glad we are on our way to moving beyond the idiocy of pretending that if we just close our eyes, put our hands over our ears and go la-la-la-la in a loud voice, we can pretend that Cuba never become communist.

We normalized relations with Vietnam before we did with Cuba.  That's just...

Anyway, we've been talking about going to England this summer, maybe we should go to Cuba instead.  See it before Disney gets there.

Dark Days

Seems like all the news is bad.

So here's some music:

Whiny Police

When Cleveland Brown Andrew Hawkins wore a t-shirt protesting the shootings of Tamir Rice and John Crawford, the head of the Cleveland PBA wrote a whiny demand for an apology.

Today, Hawkins responded.  And he responded in a way that should shut up the whiny police union reps who are trying to silence legitimate protest from some of the few African Americans who have the visibility to make their feelings known.

Read Hawkins's speech:

“I was taught that justice is a right that every American should have. Also justice should be the goal of every American. I think that’s what makes this country. To me, justice means the innocent should be found innocent. It means that those who do wrong should get their due punishment. Ultimately, it means fair treatment. So a call for justice shouldn’t offend or disrespect anybody. A call for justice shouldn’t warrant an apology.

“To clarify, I utterly respect and appreciate every police officer that protects and serves all of us with honesty, integrity and the right way. And I don’t think those kind of officers should be offended by what I did. My mom taught me my entire life to respect law enforcement. I have family, close friends that are incredible police officers and I tell them all the time how they are much braver than me for it. So my wearing a T-shirt wasn’t a stance against every police officer or every police department. My wearing the T-shirt was a stance against wrong individuals doing the wrong thing for the wrong reasons to innocent people.

“Unfortunately, my mom also taught me just as there are good police officers, there are some not-so-good police officers that would assume the worst of me without knowing anything about me for reasons I can’t control. She taught me to be careful and be on the lookout for those not-so-good police officers because they could potentially do me harm and most times without consequences. Those are the police officers that should be offended.

“Being a police officer takes bravery. And I understand that they’re put in difficult positions and have to make those snap decisions. As a football player, I know a little bit about snap decisions, obviously on an extremely lesser and non-comparative scale, because when a police officer makes a snap decision, it’s literally a matter of life and death. That’s hard a situation to be in. But if the wrong decision is made, based on pre-conceived notions or the wrong motives, I believe there should be consequence. Because without consequence, naturally the magnitude of the snap decisions is lessened, whether consciously or unconsciously.

“I’m not an activist, in any way, shape or form. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred I keep my opinions to myself on most matters. I worked extremely hard to build and keep my reputation especially here in Ohio, and by most accounts I’ve done a solid job of decently building a good name. Before I made the decision to wear the T-shirt, I understood I was putting that reputation in jeopardy to some of those people who wouldn’t necessarily agree with my perspective. I understood there was going to be backlash, and that scared me, honestly. But deep down I felt like it was the right thing to do. If I was to run away from what I felt in my soul was the right thing to do, that would make me a coward, and I can’t live with that. God wouldn’t be able to put me where I am today, as far as I’ve come in life, if I was a coward.

“As you well know, and it’s well documented, I have a 2-year-old little boy. The same 2-year-old little boy that everyone said was cute when I jokingly threw him out of the house earlier this year. That little boy is my entire world. And the No. 1 reason for me wearing the T-shirt was the thought of what happened to Tamir Rice happening to my little Austin scares the living hell out of me. And my heart was broken for the parents of Tamir and John Crawford knowing they had to live that nightmare of a reality.

“So, like I said, I made the conscious decision to wear the T-shirt. I felt like my heart was in the right place. I’m at peace with it and those that disagree with me, this is America, everyone has the right to their first amendment rights. Those who support me, I appreciate your support. But at the same time, support the causes and the people and the injustices that you feel strongly about. Stand up for them. Speak up for them. No matter what it is because that’s what America’s about and that’s what this country was founded on.”

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Why We Aren't Prosecuting Anyone For Torture

I've tried to figure out why we aren't prosecuting anyone, and I am hopeful I have an answer.

Watching what happened in Ferguson and Staten Island, I have to think that the Justice Department is worried that they wouldn't get a conviction.  People are fearful sheep who want some bullshit movie action hero to save them by being mean to "bad guys".

Acquittal of these jackals would be worse than bringing no charges.

So the Justice Department and the Administration is showing a lack of faith in the American people.  A lack of faith that history has shown to be completely justified.

Exams Are Done

Now comes lots and lots of writing.

Which, frankly, is preferable to reading student's scrawling handwriting and trying to read into their hormone-fogged thoughts.

Racism? What Racism?

http://www.vox.com/2014/12/13/7383033/the-median-wealth-for-whites-in-the-us-is-nearly-142000-for-blacks

Fat Tony At It Again

America's Judicial Concern Troll has decided to weigh in on the torture scandal, because of course he did.

Scalia - who we have been told for 30 years is a very intelligent man who just holds strong beliefs about original intent - says that there is nothing in the Constitution that prohibits torture.

I'm just a humble history teacher, but let me take a crack at it:

Let's take a looky-loo at the Fifth Amendment:

No person shall..be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.

That looks like you can't force someone to say things, like, you know, under torture.

Then of course, there's the troublesome Eighth Amendment:

...nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Maybe Scalia doesn't think being beaten until he loses an eye counts?  Simulated drowning doesn't count?  Reducing a mentally deficient man to a quivering shell of a person via systematic torture isn't cruel?

Or maybe Scalia simply doesn't think that applies to foreign born persons.  OK, there is some logic to that.  Not sure how that gibes with Jose Padilla, but OK.

How about this?

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

And then you have the US signing the Geneva Conventions and UN Convention against Torture, which are treaties that prohibit torture, making them the "supreme Law of the Land" whatever John Yoo may say.

Once again, I feel like we live in different universes.

Crappy Deal

Can't believe Obama is prepared to sign the CRomnibus and begin the gutting of whatever restrictions we have on the plutocracy.  I suppose this is the level of suckage we have to expect in the coming era of divided government.

I fear another Grand Bargain is lurking off stage somewhere.

Two Different Countries

https://twitter.com/FiveThirtyEight/status/542670718056816640/photo/1

Check out the link.  I'll wait.

I don't blame Obama for the weak economy, because he couldn't get the sort of stimulus through Congress that was needed.

I don't blame Obama for the complexity of the ACA, because that's all Congress would allow.

I don't blame Obama for leaving Gitmo open, because Congress thwarted him.

But he could have made torture the crime that it is.  And the idea that over 70% of Republicans think it's OK to torture someone makes me sick to my stomach.  It's bad enough that 45% of Democrats think that way, but this isn't a partisan issue.  It's a moral one.

I don't understand who Republicans are.

The Founders Of Our Country Were Objectively Anti-Torture

http://www.juancole.com/2014/12/founding-foundational-constitution.html

This is a really solid piece of accessible scholarly writing that points out the many ways in which the men who created this nation abhorred the practice of torture.  For all the Tea Party paeans to Constitutional originalism and reverence for "the Founders" my guess is that they will deny this basic enlightenment ideal that animated the creation of this country: that the state must be bound by its own laws.

The Price Of Force

Max Weber notably defined the state as an entity with a "monopoly of violence over a given territory."  That definition always strikes my students as strange until we break it down.  Whether the state is Sweden or North Korea, that state shares the characteristic of removing the use of force or violence from the hands of individuals and placing that use of force in the hands of institutions that ideally serve to create a stable state.

What we are seeing in the United State today is some of those institutions have blurred the lines about what they should do and what they can do.  The great contribution of Anglo-American political thought - stretching from the Magna Carta to the Constitution - is that for a state to be legitimate, it must be bound by its own laws.

This rule of law is the most essential element of legitimate democratic governance.

But for it to work properly, the state must be bound by the laws it sets over the people and itself.  Russia, for instance, had a rule limiting the presidency to two terms.  When Putin decided he didn't like that, he effectively scrapped it.  He basically decided that he didn't need to abide by the laws, so he ignored them.

The problem America is having right now is that some of the institutions that we invest with the power to commit violence on our behalf are not showing the necessary respect for that vital rule of law.

The outrage over the overzealous use of force by police and the systematic use of torture by the CIA is basically linked to the idea of institutions out of the reach of the rule of law.

The ultimate truth about what happened in the case of Michael Brown may never be known, but Eric Garner and Tamir Rice and others are clearer.  And they paint a picture of policing institutions that are not bound by the laws that bind others.  The idea that you can kill someone in broad daylight who is not armed and not even go to trial suggests that the laws that apply to all of us - and even to the police themselves - are no longer working.

As John McCain said yesterday at the release of the Senate torture report, America helped craft the international treaties that forbid torture.  We helped create and signed the Geneva Conventions.  We put laws on the books after the Philippines War that prohibit forms of torture.  And then we ignored those limits when it became mildly inconvenient to abide by them.

Both of these trends reflect the broader, pants-wetting cowardice that we are exhibiting repeatedly in America today.  We are so scared of black men and Muslim terrorists that a large segment of the population is willing to throw over the fundamental achievement of American political philosophy: namely that the government should be bound by its own laws.

This is truly distressing.  Especially when you see mouth breathing morans losing their shit over the idea that America isn't perfect.

The events of the last few years and months represent a challenge to what America thinks it stands for.  If you want to blindly cling to a false image of what America is like a child clinging to a security blanket, then you aren't really worthy of being part of the conversation about what America should be.

We Tortured Some Folks

The torture report seems to be about what I expected.  It is both not a surprise and yet surprising in its details.

The following is clear:

- It was more brutal than we were told.
- It produced almost no information of value.
- It was pushed from Washington rather than from the field.

And sadly no one will go to jail for this.  Thank God no one in the CIA stole some cigarellos.

The Next Two Years Could Be Fun

http://www.vox.com/2014/12/9/7358655/obama-colbert#ooid=A1M2k2cjoLTDfsef2NURV21IC0P716zL

Torture Report Coming Soon

My guess is that it will be sorely lacking in real revelations.  It will have been redacted beyond comprehension.  I do hope that they lay bare some of the worst abuses.  I realize that we will never see real justice for those who dragged the reputation of the United States through the sewer by torturing the guilty and not guilty alike.

But for the accuracy of history, this needs to be aired and clarified.

(And no, this won't cause anyone to hate us more than they already do.)

The Coming Suckage

It starts with the backlash against police brutality and campus sexual assault.

There is then a backlash against the backlash against police brutality and campus sexual assault.

So we have people saying Eric Garner and Tamir Rice and Michael Brown deserved to die for some reason.  And that "Jackie" and the Cosby accusers are doing it for the fame.  Or something.

And this backlash against the backlash will create its own backlash.  

In the end, we will retreat into our tribal camps and throw stones at each other.

And black men will continue to die and women will continue to be raped.  And one side of that tribal divide will apparently be okay with that.

My Life Is About To Suck

Wrestling tournament today, 24 term papers to grade, 3 advisee letters to write, creating the AP US exam, helping organize my department's exam...All by Wednesday.

Pray for me, a sinner, in the hour of my need...

Well, This Will Make You Sick

http://www.vox.com/2014/12/5/7342489/rape-assault-violence-graphic

I don't know what happened at UVA.  But that doesn't mean rape isn't a huge issue.

Who Will Stop Obama's Job-Killing Agenda?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/321000-jobs-added-unemployment-unchanged

I have a theory, backed up by nothing beyond a general sense of history, that the economy of the last 50 years is pretty much tied to energy costs.  When energy costs are high - the '70s, the last ten years or so - then the economy suffers.  When energy costs fall - the '80s and late '90s - the economy grows.

This is basically saying that taking large amounts of consumer dollars (perhaps better understood as "demand") and effectively lighting them on fire in order to power things is a really shitty way to expend a limited amount of demand-power.

It's a correlation with a tenuous theory attached to it, I know, but I like it.

The US has been outperforming Europe and Japan since 2008.  This is partly because both the Democrats from 2008-2011 and the Federal Reserve have pursued an expansionary fiscal and monetary policy.  Japan is in a liquidity trap (among other things) and Europe has foolishly pursued austerity (thanks, Germany!).

But if the forecasts are right that US growth will start to slow because the rest of the world is still sluggish, we could see the rest of the world perk up as energy prices fall.

This could create a nice economic condition leading into 2016.

Obviously, this is a recognition that Presidents and even Congress have limited abilities to effect the economy.  This is especially true in the era of divided and combative governance.

But if Obama gets slagged for things that aren't his fault, perhaps he should get credit for things he didn't really do.  (Although you can argue that his decision to anger environmentalists by allowing the shale oil gas revolution is important.)

South Carolina, Bastion Of Civil Rights

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/south-carolina-3-indictments-cops

What's the difference between SC and Staten Island or Ferguson?

A District Attorney who has the balls to hold the police accountable.

The Democratic Party In A Nutshell

Democrats make great policy and lousy politics.

Three Great Reads

Today was crazy loco.

So I offer these three excellent reads:

Ezra Klein explains why The New Republic can't really succeed.

Amanda Taub explains why cops can basically get away with murder.

Conor Williams writes a really compelling explanation of why both conservatives and liberals have turned a blind eye to decades of Blue on Black violence.

Open Season

I've felt that body cams on cops would be a nice step to insure that police do not abuse the power we give them.

But the case of Eric Garner shows that even evidence alone won't matter.  The decision not to indict the cop who choked him to death has drawn surprising outrage from conservative commentators.  Whereas the essential question of what actually happened continues to haunt the Michael Brown case, we know what happened with Garner.  It's all on camera.

And still the cop isn't even charged.

Whereas liberals tend to equate what happened with Garner (and the kid in Cleveland and the guy in Utah and the guy in Walmart) with what happened with Brown, conservatives don't.  For liberals, Garner and Brown's deaths are part of an overarching pattern of police violence used against African American men.  Conservatives simply assert that Brown was a "thug" and got what was coming to him.

The impact of cameras on cops will not lead to more police being charged with crimes, because apparently you can't charge a cop with a crime.

But it might eventually lead to a change in the law.

And that would be worth it.

UPDATE: I think a clear reform should be that any case that involves a police officer killing a civilian where there was no weapon on the civilian there should be a special prosecutor to handle it.  No more use of the same prosecutors who work with the police.

Wither Now?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/gop-war-immigration-fizzles

A continuing resolution would be a not-bad thing, providing it takes us past March.  But it does appear, once again, that GOP leadership gets it.  They can't keep attacking Hispanics.  And any fight over Obama's immigration reforms - especially a high profile fight like a shutdown - will hurt them.

At the moment, they have managed to corral their xenophobic wing(nuts), but we will see how long that lasts.

Constitutional Scholars, Every Last One Of Them

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/gop-censure-obama

So, Obama changes immigration policy via executive order - like Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush have all done before him.

The GOP freaks out, because that's what they do.

Impeachment isn't going to happen (sadly, I think that would crystallize the crazy).

So, to protest the President's "unconstitutional" actions, the GOP Congress is going to go with...an unconstitutional action.

Well played, dipshits.

Off To The Dentist

Because - combined with three airport pickups in 24 hours - that's how I need to start the 19 day period I fondly call "Slouching Towards Bethlehem."