Seriously.

The girl in that case is one of five plaintiffs in a federal class-action lawsuit filed against the city by the New York Civil Liberties Union. The suit alleges widespread mistreatment of public school students by safety officers and the police. New York City schoolchildren are often arrested, the suit charges, for minor misbehavior that might be a violation of school rules but is in no way a violation of law.

Just last month, a 12-year-old girl at a junior high school in Queens was arrested for doodling on her desk with an erasable marker. She was paraded out of school in handcuffs and taken to a precinct stationhouse. She wept, too.

When asked about that case, a spokesman for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said “common sense should prevail” when decisions are made about whether to handcuff and arrest students. But common sense is frequently in short supply when the safety officers and the police are imposing their will on students who are not lawbreakers.

via Op-Ed Columnist – Cops vs. Kids in New York City Schools – NYTimes.com.

I wonder what the statute of limitations for this serious crime is. If you are a millenial and you have ever scribbled your name on a school desk in NYC, beware, the cold case unit may be at your door soon.

I agree with James Fallows sentiment regarding politicians and closing speeches with the overused phrase “And God Bless the United States of America” (AGBTUSOA). Fallows correctly diagnoses this as a lazy applause cue that has taken the place of an effective “composed thought” that can add a summarizing punch to public addresses.

I hate, hate, hate the lazy modern presidential habit of ending all major addresses with the phrase “And God bless the United States of America” or simply “God bless America.”

I love the Irving Berlin song. I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment. But a little chunk is hacked away from the national brain each time a president gets out of a speech not with a thought or original phrase but with this mindless pablum. This has become the political equivalent of “Have a nice day!”

via Sorry to hear Obama talking this way – Science and Tech – The Atlantic.

I am pretty sure he increased usage of AGBTUSOA as the campaign went on to the point where most speeches he closes this way. Of course there are many welcome exceptions.

By all reports President Obama is not ambiavalent about his oratory, so I would tend to believe the increased usage of AGBTUSOA is intentional. Part of me suspects that this is an attempt at a defensive dog whistle for anyone to the left of a Tea Partier, Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin. He says this after his speeches so that anyone who is capable of rational thought doesn’t think that he is a Kenyan born, Muslin’, socialist, terrorist-pal, Nazi, commie, Rahm-pawn, black militant.

This is just awful.

President Obama’s advisers are nearing a recommendation that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, be prosecuted in a military tribunal, administration officials said, a step that would reverse Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s plan to try him in civilian court in New York City.

The president’s advisers feel increasingly hemmed in by bipartisan opposition to a federal trial in New York and demands, mainly from Republicans, that Mohammed and his accused co-conspirators remain under military jurisdiction, officials said. While Obama has favored trying some terrorism suspects in civilian courts as a symbol of U.S. commitment to the rule of law, critics have said military tribunals are the appropriate venue for those accused of attacking the United States.

If Obama accepts the likely recommendation of his advisers, the White House may be able to secure from Congress the funding and legal authority it needs to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and replace it with a facility within the United States. The administration has failed to meet a self-imposed one-year deadline to close Guantanamo.

[…]

Marine Col. Jeffrey Colwell, acting chief defense counsel at the Defense Department’s Office of Military Commissions, said it would be a “sad day for the rule of law” if Obama decides not to proceed with a federal trial. “I thought the decision where to put people on trial — whether federal court or military commissions — was based on what was right, not what is politically advantageous,” Colwell said.

Administration officials said that an announcement could come soon and that they hoped to finalize their plans before Obama leaves for Indonesia on March 18.

Holder announced in a November statement that Mohammed and his co-defendants would be tried in a federal court in Lower Manhattan, hailing it as a “significant step forward in our efforts to close Guantánamo and to bring to justice those individuals who have conspired to attack our nation and our interests abroad.”

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) initially embraced the decision. But when a grass-roots opposition movement took off and cost estimates for security ballooned, Bloomberg and leading New York Democrats turned against the civilian trial. Others objected on national security grounds, arguing that a Manhattan trial could attract another attack.

via Obama advisers set to recommend military tribunals for alleged 9/11 plotters – washingtonpost.com.

So, it seems, Graham/Rahm alliance won out against the rule of law and got Obama and the White House to cave in this disregard for this rule of law. So as noted at Attackerman, Graham is now the bi-partisan gate keeper for all security issues. When I think of this most cynically, all this bi-partisanship is making me feel like we elected Bob Dole. Such is the awful friction against progressive action that is Capitol Hill.

Due to our need for allies in the middle east in our wars against Afghanistan and Iraq, we can’t push Azerbaijan to reform

The rush to move assets overseas, often with scant regard for returns, is a common feature of many oil-producing nations, where corrupt elites seek to ensure that their wealth is safe just in case political winds at home change. The phenomenon is part of the “resource curse,” an ailment that has deformed the economies and politics of corruption-addled, oil-producing nations from Nigeria to Venezuela.

Kerimli said Washington paid too much attention to security and energy issues and thus “sent a signal to our country that democratic reform is not important.” When Richard B. Cheney visited Baku as vice president in 2008, he not only held talks with President Aliyev focused on energy but also met with executives of BP and the U.S. oil company Chevron, both of which have operations in Azerbaijan, as do Exxon and other foreign oil companies. Azerbaijan and the United States, Cheney said, “have many interests in common.”

The Obama administration has also focused on strategic issues in its relations with Azerbaijan. On a visit to Baku two weeks ago, William J. Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, praised Azerbaijan for supporting the United States in Afghanistan and trumpeted the role of a U.S.-backed oil pipeline from Baku to Turkey that broke Russia’s stranglehold on energy exports from the Caspian Sea.

In a speech, Burns avoided direct criticism of Azerbaijan, noting only: “We also believe that the strengthening of democratic institutions, rule of law and respect for human rights will have a positive effect on the future of this country.”

via 11-year-old spends $44 million in Dubai – Washington Post- msnbc.com.

And in part because Turkey is a key ally in our middle east wars our government can’t call the almost century old mass murder of over one million Armenians genocide.

WASHINGTON — The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted narrowly on Thursday to condemn as genocide the mass killings of Armenians early in the last century, defying a last-minute plea from the Obama administration to forgo a vote that seemed sure to offend Turkey and jeopardize delicate efforts at Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.

The vote on the nonbinding resolution, a perennial point of friction addressing a dark, century-old chapter of Turkish history, was 23 to 22. A similar resolution passed by a slightly wider margin in 2007, but the Bush administration, fearful of losing Turkish cooperation over Iraq, lobbied forcefully to keep it from reaching the House floor. Whether this resolution will reach a floor vote remains unclear.

In Ankara, the capital, the office of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan immediately issued a sharp rebuke. “We condemn this bill that denounces the Turkish nation of a crime that it has not committed,” the statement said. Ambassador Namik Tan, who had only weeks ago taken up his post in Washington, has been recalled to Ankara for consultations, according to the statement.

Historians say that as many as 1.5 million Armenians died amid the chaos and unrest surrounding World War I and the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey denies, however, that this was a planned genocide, and had mounted a vigorous lobbying campaign against the resolution.

A White House spokesman, Mike Hammer, said that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had told Representative Howard L. Berman of California, the committee chairman, late on Wednesday that a vote would be harmful, jeopardizing Turkish-Armenian reconciliation efforts that last year yielded two protocols aimed at a thawing of relations.

via House Panel Says Armenian Deaths Were Genocide – NYTimes.com.

Paterson is just a nut.

Gov. David A. Paterson falsely testified under oath during an ethics investigation into his acceptance of free World Series tickets last fall, according to the State Commission on Public Integrity, which announced on Wednesday that it had asked prosecutors to determine if criminal charges should be brought against the governor.

The commission said Mr. Paterson sought and accepted five free tickets for Game 1 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. When inquiries were made about the tickets, he testified that he had always intended to pay for them.

The panel said the governor backdated, or had another person backdate, a personal check to buttress his explanation that he had planned to pay the Yankees for the seats, which were behind home plate and had a face value of $425 each.

[…]

While it is not uncommon for politicians to receive complimentary tickets to sporting events, state ethics law prohibits executive branch officials from soliciting or accepting gifts of more than nominal value from any lobbyist if the gift appears intended to sway the official. The Yankees were registered last year to lobby the Paterson administration in connection with financing for their stadium.

via David Paterson Misled Inquiry on Gifts, New York Panel Says – NYTimes.com.

Along with allegations he ordered officials in his employ to help cover up David W. Johnson’s abuse of a long time partner, its just time for this guy to take a hike.