Month: May 2011

Cause of death

by digby

The location was convenient anyway:

A Connecticut man who was causing a ruckus in the lobby of a hospital died after being shocked with a Taser by police.

Police were called to Saint Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, Conn., at 12:30 a.m. on Sunday by employees complaining about a man causing a disturbance, the Hartford Courant reported.

Cops arrested the man and threw him in the back of their cruiser, where the man continued to act belligerent, police said.

One officer tasered the man and, shortly after, he fell unconscious.

He was rushed back to the hospital, where emergency crews tried to resuscitate him, but he died early Sunday morning.

Cops said an autopsy was planned to determine the cause of death.

Oh why bother? He was obviously going to die of something else (aren’t we all?) so the taser couldn’t possibly be the cause of death. Therefore, he died of natural causes.

Seriously, they are likely to say that he had “excited delirium” the organic disease that only manifests itself in people who are tasered by police. Taser international has spent a lot of money on junkets convincing coroners that this junk science is real.

h/t to bb

Happy Mother’s Day, ladies. You don’t exist

by digby

WTH?

Ultra Orthodox Hasidic newspaper Der Tzitung is telling its readers like it isn’t- by editing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from the now-iconic Bin Laden raid Situation Room photo. Oy vey. The religious paper never publishes pictures of women, as they could be considered “sexually suggestive.” Apparently the presence of a woman, any woman, being all womanly and sexy all over the United States’ counterterrorism efforts was too much for the editors of Der Tzitung to handle.

Plus, her nickname is Hitlery.

It’s interesting that fundamentalists of all the major religions seem to share this particular characteristic. I guess that’s why we liberal feminazis support them so much.

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Disaster planning

by digby

I know this is soooo April 2011 and feels like a stale and dull story, but it’s still somewhat interesting from a historical perspective. From Greg Mitchell’s Wikileaks blog:

1:20 More on big WikiLeaks release today on Japan shortcomings in nuclear plant safety, this time from WSJ. “The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident exposed flaws in the Japanese government’s measures to guard the country’s reactors against earthquakes and tsunamis. U.S. officials have in recent years also worried that Japanese officials haven’t taken enough precautions to protect the facilities from terrorist attacks, according to diplomatic documents released over the weekend on the Wikileaks website.” 10:30 WikiLeaks releases cables on Japan’s history with nuclear power. The dam has finally broken on the 7000 cables from Tokyo.

Now I realize that the US is very, very exceptional and such a thing would never happen here because we’re so good and they’re so evil, but still. Japan is a high tech, wealthy, first world country. And yet they cut corners and allowed corrupt bureaucrats and greedy, short sighted human beings who run capitalistic enterprises to ensure the safety of nuclear plants. There’s a lesson in there somewhere. Let me think about it and maybe I’ll figure it out.
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Who cares about the children?

by digby

When Business Week starts publishing op-eds like this one, one might think that your average CEO would worry about the future of the American workforce and his or her own company’s ability to hire educated workers. But that would require long term thinking and they only see the “long term” as yet another tool for them to pillage the nation’s wealth in the short term. Still, in a more perfect world …

Politicians who seek steep government spending cuts while opposing a higher U.S. debt ceiling sound a common theme. Slash spending for the sake of the next generation, they say, because the nation’s debt is crippling our children’s aspirations. “The question comes down to this: What will you say to that next generation about what you did to make sure that wouldn’t be their fate?” said Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) at a Republican rally in New Hampshire on Apr. 30.

The problem is that the proposed spending cuts would disproportionately affect the current generation of children. It’s emblematic of skewed priorities that the same Congress that on Apr. 15 approved Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wisc.) budget proposal to exempt anyone 55 and older from changes in Medicare had less than two months earlier supported cuts of at least $7 billion in discretionary spending for children’s education. Slashed were such programs as the Even Start Financial Literacy Program, the High School Graduation Initiative, and Head Start. (The eventual compromise budget reached late on Apr. 8 focused cuts in other areas, such as high-speed rail.)

Pressure on education is even more draconian at the state level. The District of Columbia and 34 states have reduced expenditures on K-12 education and 43 states have cut into higher education, according to the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities. Human capital is the key to creating wealth in a modern economy. “I don’t think most people are thinking about the long-term time bomb we’re creating,” says Robert Pianta, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. “There’s no question you’ll save some money upfront, but the long-term cost is enormous.” read on …

All this worry about what the debt is going to do to “the children” would be a lot more compelling if they ever gave a damn about the future in any other way. As it is, the country they plan to leave “the children” is a grim banana republic with the vast majority of the people engaged in menial work servicing the super-rich. (Oh, and global warming too.)

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Saturday Night At The Movies

2011 SIFF Preview

By Dennis Hartley

The Last Circus: Yet another Spanish Civil War parody with killer clowns (yawn)

In case this has been keeping you up nights, I have been accredited for the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival; a privilege for which I remain forever in debt to the readers who went to bat for me a while back (you know who you are)-and to my good pal Digby, who graciously gives me this weekly forum to scribble about movies and creatively “waste valuable Digby-space” (as one of my more ardent “admirers” recently proffered in the comment thread) And thanks to SIFF for acknowledging our neck of the blogosphere.

The festival kicks off May 19th and runs through June 12th. Navigating a film festival is no easy task, even for a dedicated buff. Although, I was still a little surprised when they told as at last week’s press launch that the average attendee only catches 2 or 3 screenings per festival (I know-they have lives). SIFF will be showing 441 films over 25 days. That must be great for independently wealthy slackers, but for those of us who work for a living (*cough*), it’s tough finding the time and energy it would take to catch 17.6 films a day (I did the math). I take consolation from my observation that the ratio of less-than-stellar (too many) to quality films (too few) at a film festival differs little from any Friday night crapshoot at the multiplex. The trick lies in developing a sixth sense for films most likely up your alley (in my case, embracing my OCD and channeling it like a cinematic divining rod.) As usual there looks to be a rich crop of celluloid to pick through this year.

The documentary offerings look interesting, particularly those with a political bent. From Ghana, An African Election promises a “thrilling, unprecedented insider’s view into the political, economic and social forces at work” in that country’s 2008 presidential race. In a similar vein, a German film called The Green Wave takes a peek inside Middle-Eastern politics, reviewing Iran’s 2009 elections, using an intriguing blend of documentary and animation. The most promising film in this category looks to be My So-Called Enemy, documenting a 2002 leadership program called “Building Bridges for Peace”, in which 22 Palestinian and Israeli teenage girls traveled to the U.S. The filmmaker follows six of them on their quest (and for the sake of our world’s future, I hope it has a happy ending).

More docs I’m hoping to catch include Page One: Inside the New York Times (we’ll assume that the title pulls double duty as a synopsis), The Bengali Detective (from India) which trails a “pudgy, middle-aged private dick” as he sleuths around Kolkata, and Bobby Fischer Against the World, a portrait of the elusive and tragically loony chess prodigy from acclaimed documentarian Liz Garbus (The Farm: Angola USA). I know next to nothing about the sport where people get excited about “bowling a googly”, but the U.K. doc Fire in Babylon, which recounts how the West Indies cricket team transformed themselves from the butt of jokes to world champs intrigues me with its culture-clash theme and the promise of a killer reggae soundtrack (reminiscent of Cool Runnings) Eco-docs have become a film festival staple; two promising entries are If a Tree Falls: The Story of the Earth Liberation Front, which uses the trial of an Oregon-based activist as entree (no pun intended) into a history of the extremist environmentalist group, and Revenge of the Electric Car, director Chris Paine’s follow-up to Who Killed the Electric Car?. And I’m sure no commie pinko DFH like me can resist a documentary entitled Magic Trip: Ken Kesey’s Search for a Kool Place (will I see tracers afterwards?)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is presenting a series at SIFF this year called “Asian Crossroads”, which includes Flying Fish, a drama from Sri Lanka that uses that country’s devastating civil war as a backdrop for a network narrative about “love, betrayal, and ethnic tension in a seemingly idyllic village”. Also showing promise are Rosario, a drama from the Philippines about a liberated Filipina in the 1920s who returns home after a visit to the U.S. and faces chastisement from her family for her “unorthodox” life choices, and Saigon Electric-starring “the most talented new faces in Vietnam’s underground dance scene” (and looks to be a Vietnamese take on Breakin’).

There aren’t a lot of Inupiaq filmmakers out there, so as a long-time Alaskan, I am intrigued to check out director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean’s On the Ice, a drama (set in Barrow, Alaska) about a fatal accident that tears apart a tightly-knit native community. Fans of Japanese cult director Takeshi Kitano (guilty) will surely be fighting over seats to see his latest flick Outrage, a Yakuza gangster yarn (surprise surprise). From France, I’m putting my money on Poupoupidou (Nobody Else but You), a thriller about a detective story author with writer’s block, who meets a beautiful blonde spokesmodel (for a cheese factory, no less). The catch? She’s sort of…dead. From the trailer I saw, it looks like a cross between Laura and Venus in Furs (which I reviewed here). An epic 156-minute action thriller from South Korea called Yellow Sea purports to deliver an “elegiac world of violence and despair with incredible action and the most elaborate car chase shot on film to date” (but better than Bullit or The French Connection? We’ll see about that…).

In the “funny ha-ha” department, there’s Boy (New Zealand), a coming-of-age story about an 11-year old Maori who fantasizes about his dad breaking out of prison so he can take his son to a Michael Jackson concert; Fathers and Sons (Canada), an ensemble dramedy about fathers and their estranged sons; and from Spain, A Thousand Fools promises a “masterfully random, occasionally interlocking collection of 15 vignettes, delivered at a rapid-fire, pin-wheeling pace.” I have a soft spot for “road movies” (in fact I did a Top 10 list on the genre a while back) and there seems to be a plethora of them at this year’s festival. Salvation Boulevard (USA) is a “righteous satire about religious hypocrisy” that concerns a “mega-church” parishioner (and former Deadhead) who hits the road to flee fellow church-members after being framed for the murder of their sleazy minister (possibly some shades there of The Big Lebowski). Pinoy Sunday (Taiwan) is about two Filipino migrant workers who “embark on a comic journey” after discovering a couch on the streets of Taipei. The Trip (UK) is the latest from director Michael Winterbottom, and follows two friends (Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, loosely “playing themselves”) literally eating their way through England’s Lake District via a series of restaurant stops (anything with Coogan is a must-see for me). Natural Selection (USA) is a “genre busting comedy” about a devout Christian housewife who finds her long-lost son (an escaped con) and takes him to visit her dying husband. Black White and Blues (USA), from director Mario van Peebles, uses an “odd couple” narrative, with a “Shakespeare-quoting, tee-totaling black man who digs country” and a “womanizing, hard-drinking white man who reveres the blues” hitting the highways of the Deep South.

My biggest weakness at SIFF remains their “Face the Music” series. Killing Bono (UK) is a “based on a true story” dramedy concerning two fledgling high-school rock bands in 1970s Dublin who are friendly rivals, until one of the bands starts to sort of make it big…well, really fookin’ big (see: title of the film). Hit So Hard (USA) is a grrl power rock doc profiling Hole drummer Patty Schemel (who I would imagine has a Courtney Love anecdote or two to share). Who Took the Bomp? Le Tigre on Tour (USA) offers a backstage glimpse at the feminist synth-punkers on their 2004-2005 “farewell tour”. Mama Africa (South Africa) is a “joyful homage” to Grammy winning singer, civil rights activist and all-around inspiring human Miriam Makeba, and is billed to be chock-a-block with performance clips from her vintage Cape Town days. Backyard (Iceland) is a film that literally started out as a backyard project for filmmaker Arni Sveinsson, who invited some musician pals over to jam at his house. The resulting documentary is said to showcase the “most exciting, young Icelandic musicians” of “Reykjavik’s up-and-coming music scene” (move over, Bjork). The one “event” presentation I really hope to snag a seat for this year is The Thief of Bagdad: Re-imagined by Shadoe Stevens with the Music of E.L.O. (I suppose the title says it all). The venerable L.A. air personality is said to have obsessed on this project for a couple decades; meticulously combing the entire Electric Light Orchestra song catalog to find lyrics and musical passages that, edited together, create a seamless (and thematically apropos) soundtrack in perfect synch with Raoul Walsh’s classic 1924 silent film (starring the great Douglas Fairbanks). Can’t wait!

I can’t guarantee that I will catch every film that I’d like to, gentle reader- but you will be the first to receive a full report, beginning with my Saturday, May 21 post. And obviously, I’ve barely scratched the surface of the catalog tonight. So in the meantime, for more info about the 2011 SIFF, just check out their website at www.seattlefilm.org.

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Finally, some government action

by digby

Who says the government can’t get anything done?

Florida, your long nightmare is over!

No, I’m not talking about the current reign of your grifter governor — that’s a nightmare of much shorter duration.

At long last, and on its third attempt, the Florida legislature has succeeded in passing an anti-bestiality bill. From the perspective of the folks outraged about what happened to this goat, this is their “Osama bin Laden has been brought to justice.”

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As the kids say

by digby

Looks like Jon Hunstman is going to challenge Obama youth vote in a big way:

In a graduation speech Saturday morning at the University of South Carolina, former U.S. Ambassador to China and potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman tried his best to look like a cool, young dad instead of a traditional politician.

He kicked off his remarks to the 1,150 graduates by thanking the university’s president, Dr. Harris Pastides, for an introduction that “made me sound pretty cool.”

Huntsman then went on to recount his time as a young man playing in the rock band “Wizard” noting that he once had Rod Stewart-like hair and “I wouldn’t wear anything but super skinny jeans.”

He ended his remarks with a reference to Ben Folds, a musician who was popular when most of the graduates were in diapers. He ended his speech by telling the soon to be grads “never forget to rock and roll.”

But the former ambassador and Utah governor also addressed more weighty matters, including the issue that both Republicans and Democrats appear intent on using against him if he launches a White House bid — his service in the administration of a president he may now be seeking to run against.

“Work to keep America great. Serve her if asked. I was, by a president of a different political party,” Huntsman said. “But in the end, while we might not all be of one party, we are all part of one nation — a nation that needs your generational gift, energy and confidence

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I have no way of knowing how that sounded to the graduates, but there’s something about it that reminds me of Tim Pawlenty going on about his “smokin’ hot wife” and Charlie Sheen. #FAIL (as the kids say)

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Chest Pounding

by digby

They have no idea who they are:

President Obama has ‘pounded his chest’ too much and taken too much pride in the success of the mission to take out Osama bin Laden, according to, of all people, George W. Bush’s former Chief of Staff, Andrew Card.

In an interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel, Card said that Obama has “pounded his chest” too much over the death of Osama bin Laden, particularly by going to Ground Zero earlier this week, the site of the 9/11 attacks.

“I think he has pounded his chest a little too much,” Card said. “He can take pride in it, but he does not need to show it so much.”

Uh huh:

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The Big One?

by digby

While the news media continues to obsess over the bin Laden operation, an epic disaster is unfolding in slow motion along the Mississippi river. 300-400 percent above average rainfall over the last month has led to massive flooding, evacuations, blowing up levees to protect towns downriver, all kinds of destruction, tragedy and chaos — in the wake of equally epic tornadoes. It seems like it should be a story, but I guess we are more interested in repeated viewings of cartoon reenactions of the Pakistan raid. Maybe people just can’t psychologically take any more disasters. But it’s happening nonetheless.

This post by Doug Kahn over a Down with Tyranny gives a sweeping overview of the flood and the Mississippi from a historical perspective and looks at the horrifying possibilities. It’s a fascinating story if somebody wants to tell it.

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The torture made it worse

by digby

For the gazillionth time, torture doesn’t work. I know that people who like torture and enjoy making people suffer really, really want to believe it does so they don’t have to deal with the fact that they may be soulless psychos, but it won’t change the fact that it just ain’t so:

Defenders of the Bush administration’s interrogation policies have claimed vindication from reports that bin Laden was tracked down in small part due to information received from brutalized detainees some six to eight years ago.

But that sequence of events — even if true — doesn’t demonstrate the effectiveness of torture, these experts say. Rather, it indicates bin Laden could have been caught much earlier had those detainees been interrogated properly.

“I think that without a doubt, torture and enhanced interrogation techniques slowed down the hunt for bin Laden,” said an Air Force interrogator who goes by the pseudonym Matthew Alexander and located Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, in 2006.

It now appears likely that several detainees had information about a key al Qaeda courier — information that might have led authorities directly to bin Laden years ago. But subjected to physical and psychological brutality, “they gave us the bare minimum amount of information they could get away with to get the pain to stop, or to mislead us,” Alexander told The Huffington Post.

“We know that they didn’t give us everything, because they didn’t provide the real name, or the location, or somebody else who would know that information,” he said.

In a 2006 study by the National Defense Intelligence College, trained interrogators found that traditional, rapport-based interviewing approaches are extremely effective with even the most hardened detainees, whereas coercion consistently builds resistance and resentment.

I realize that for many people this is counter-intuitive. But terrorists who hold highly sensitive intelligence are the kind of people for whom a self-image of tough, resistant warriors is definitional. It’s not like holding your little brother in a wrestling hold and making him cry uncle. People have studied human psychology long enough now to realize that if you want real information as opposed to false confessions and misinformation from these people, you’ll use a different approach.

But then, I’ve never been convinced that the people who were ordering the torture ever cared much about the quality of the information it produced. They were interested in “metrics” and “intelligence product.” As long as information was flowing they were doing their jobs and that’s all that mattered.

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