Right wing intimidation at healthcare town meetings

Widespread attempts by Teabagger healthcare reform protestors to completely disrupt the congressional town hall meetings raise an interesting question. What kinds of conduct are appropriate at public meetings when intense disagreements and angry feelings arise?

Actually, I did a lot of shouting at speakers from the audience during my student days, including government spokesmen who'd come to campus to justify the Vietnam War. I recall one such meeting, perhaps 1966 or so, when William Bundy of the South Asia desk at the State Department spoke at U.C. Berkeley and was greeted by loud shouts and jeers. His host for the lecture, chair of the Political Science Department, scolded the crowd "for not letting Mr. Bundy speak." In fact, Mr. Bundy was able to deliver his whole talk, but with a good number of brief interruptions. At the time there was (usually) an understanding that while lies and deceptions should be answered forcefully on the spot, a speaker should be heard out fully, if not "respectfully."  The same etiquette used to cover (maybe still does) the speakers corner at Hyde Park in London -- a kind of noisy call and response, entertaining political theater. This is altogether different from the persistent Teabagger mob disruptions that try to intimidate people, shut down free speech and eliminate any exchange of views.

Hence, I think both of the following points are true:

1. Respect for free speech does not require us to sit quietly by as a speaker spews forth blatant falsehoods and vile prejudice.

2. Total disruption of public gatherings is contrary to freedom and democracy.

- Langdon

Depression humor

At the wonderful, but lamentably very wet, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, I visited a porta-potty. On the wall was a printed message: "You can rent this unit by the day, week, month."

Just underneath someone had written in felt tip pen: "I HAVE A HOME"

At Obama's press conference last Wednesday, the main headline concerned an ugly racial incident in Cambridge, Massachusetts involving the false arrest of noted Harvard historian, Henry Louis Gates. But within the larger politics of another issue – health care reform, the very one Obama wanted to feature – there was a far more significant racial conflict brewing. The primary barrier to progress in writing the final healthcare bill comes less from obstructionist Republicans than from their fellow travelers, the "Blue Dog" Democrats who are blocking important policy changes, especially ones that would produce a "public option" in the "reform." In today's NYT it becomes clear that the obstructionist "Blue Dogs" are notably white and "nondiverse."

* * * * * * * * * * *

[Henry Waxman, chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee:]

"We have to take up the legislation next week or acknowledge the fact that Democrats do not control the committee any longer," Mr. Waxman said. "I will not allow Blue Dogs to turn over control of the committee to Republicans, which they have threatened to do. I am troubled that some Democrats would rather align themselves with Republicans than work out their problems with fellow Democrats."

Representative Charlie Melancon, a Blue Dog Democrat from Louisiana, said passions were running high because "Mr. Waxman decided to sever discussion with Blue Dogs who are trying to get a bill that works for America." ….

The intraparty dispute had racial overtones. One African-American Democrat, Representative Hank Johnson of Georgia, pointed out that the seven Blue Dog Democrats holding up the health care bill in the Energy and Commerce Committee were "a nondiverse group" of white men.

"They should be more concerned about people who are dying than about their basic philosophy, which involves simply money," Mr. Johnson said. "Which is more important, money or live human beings with flesh and blood running through their veins, who cannot get health care?"

* * * * * * * * *

Of course, the real source blocking genuine reform in healthcare is big money: the health insurance, pharmaceutical, and other "medical industry" companies that buy votes with campaign funds to the Blue Dogs and others. I regret to say that among the Blue/Cross/White Dogs is my own congressman, Scott Murphy from upstate New York. I worked to get him elected, a terrible mistake in retrospect.

Healthcare in sane countries

An interesting post in Daily Kos, "WORDS YOU'LL NEVER HEAR IN THE CANADIAN HEALTHCARE SYSTEM," describes understandings and practices that many American would find utopian. But Canada is not the only example.

Over the years I've lived in Europe and Scandinavia for extended periods.  Each time my family and I were covered by health insurance provided by universities in the U.S.  What was notable, however, was the way in which extracting payment was not part of the drill over there.  When I'd say "We're covered by ..." they'd often say not to worry, that the charge was nominal anyway, and it was.  During a stay in Norway sixteen years ago we took our three young boys to clinics with a variety of minor illnesses.  When we'd ask, "How much do we owe you?" the doctor or person at the desk would say most emphatically, "Children don't pay!"  They were offended by our asking.

The difference comes in defining health care as a public good, equally available to all as a basic right, in contrast to the American understanding that has crept in over the past several decades that health is a profit center for the sellers, a consumer good for those able to pay.  I rank this "industry" second only to our military-industrial complex as a fount of deranged priorities and policies.

- Langdon

The wisdom of Confusedius

Insurance companies are to today's health, as leeches were to medieval medicine.

Just one example.

The Apollo 11 Moon landing: a hollow anniversary

It’s fully predictable that the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission would be cause for widespread celebration, especially in the U.S.A. The basic accomplishment – flying a rocket ship 238, 800 miles to let the first human to set foot on the Moon – still ranks as a fascinating milestone in human history, something to place on the list with the first visit to the North Pole or the running of the first four minute mile. But while in July 1969 just about everyone agreed with Neil Armstrong’s proud proclamation that he’d made “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” today we’re entitled to ask: Exactly what great leap was that? And what wonderful consequences for humanity followed?

It strikes me that the passage of time has revealed how hollow and unfulfilling the moon landing turned out to be. While media pundits and politicians wax eloquent about a great turning point, no one moves on to list any specifics. The sad fact is that the Apollo mission was predicated on Cold War competition with the U.S.S.R. and embodied some highly suspect underlying obsessions -- nationalism, militarism, technological triumphalism, and the goal of conquering nature. Along with the three astronauts, this was the ponderous cargo the space capsule carried on its journey. But once the basic entry in the record book had been written, the promise of manned space flight faded rapidly.

Yes, the Hubble and other orbiting telescopes, along with robot journeys to Mars and to distant parts of the solar system, have made valuable contributions to scientific knowledge and provided new images and perspectives for human imagination. And yes, the Space Shuttle and Space Station have logged in some noteworthy achievements. But the part of the story that involved sending living astronauts on missions of “exploration” and “conquest” to the Moon or beyond seems increasingly vain, costly and (given notable problems on Earth) unreasonable. Perhaps that is why political support for NASA dwindled when the Apollo program ended, why the agency’s funding has been steadily cut. Although not a topic for polite company, a silent question about space travel hovers in the strosphere: What good is it really?

In his recent NY Times essay, Tom Wolfe laments the fact that America never produced a philosopher to define a better understanding of space travel beyond its tawdry Cold War narrative. The only plausible candidate he mentions is ex-Nazi rocket scientist and U.S. space program guru, the late Wernher von Braun.

“The fact was, NASA had only one philosopher, Wernher von Braun. Toward the end of his life, von Braun knew he was dying of cancer and became very contemplative. I happened to hear him speak at a dinner in his honor in San Francisco. He raised the question of what the space program was really all about.

“It’s been a long time, but I remember him saying something like this: Here on Earth we live on a planet that is in orbit around the Sun. The Sun itself is a star that is on fire and will someday burn up, leaving our solar system uninhabitable. Therefore we must build a bridge to the stars, because as far as we know, we are the only sentient creatures in the entire universe. When do we start building that bridge to the stars? We begin as soon as we are able, and this is that time. We must not fail in this obligation we have to keep alive the only meaningful life we know of.”

A bridge to the what? How appropriate on the occasion of the anniversary of Apollo landing to be offered a philosophy for space travel that is literally sheer lunacy – a grotesque intellectual moonbeam that envisions options for humanity in a disaster scenario millions of years in the future. It’s lucky we Earthlings don’t have any serious worries for the shorter term.

There’s a perfectly obvious reason why no respectable philosopher has stepped forward to chart a new vision of space as a destination for human aspirations. It’s a total vacuum out there.

- Langdon

Orwellian Tweets

It's high time. The North Korean government is using Twitter to get its message out. Short URLs take you to longer stories with some hilarious observations and announcements, For example: "S. Korean Puppet Army's Plan for War Exercise Announced"

http://twitter.com/kcna_dprk

What a planet we live on!

Sarah Palin and Reactionary Politics

While Sarah Palin's resignation may a way to dodge personal and
political scandals, it seems likely that she's positioning herself as an
eventual presidential candidate. Her political strategy fits the “let’s
hope Obama fails” message of Rush Limbaugh and Republican politicians. This posture openly welcomes and may even seek to realize a massive economic collapse and social upheaval for America, seen as a grand opportunity to gain power.

The apparent lack of rational, policy content in right wing rhetoric at
present is, in my view, exactly what the game is about. Republican
demagogues along with radio and TV talk show hosts blather on about
“socialism” and other inflammatory themes, preparing the populace for disaster. If Obama’s policies fail to produce a steady, expeditious
recovery, if the economy continues to sink in ways people find
frightening, if public dissatisfaction swells, then a loose cannon like
Palin could well attract considerable support, precisely because her way of being unhinged matches the gut sense of her heartland audience and the prevailing sentiments of America’s “conservative” corporate media.

There are many examples from the past century in which strategies of
this kind worked supremely well for political extremists. Driven to
desperation, societies sometimes turn to sociopathic leaders able to
focus popular distress, rage and thirst for revenge.

It can’t happen here? Don’t count on it. If the U.S. economy continues
to tank, things could get extremely ugly.

New Chinese Software: protecting youth from objectionable online material

During my recent travels in China, it was fascinating to notice which web sites were censored (Huffington Post, and Americablog, for example) and which were not (BBC, NY Times, etc.)

Rather than embrace the internet as a source of vitality and positive change, the government of China has launched yet another crack down. From now on every computer sold in the country must install a program that will filter out violent and pornographic web sites. Critics of the development suspect it will also be used to censor political content.

As reported by the BBC, Qin Gang, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, "The purpose of this is to effectively manage harmful material for the public and prevent it from being spread," he said. "The Chinese government pushes forward the healthy development of the internet. But it lawfully manages the internet," he added.

Healthy?

For those who enjoy the names chosen for political initiatives in China, the name chosen for the software is memorable -- "Green Dam Youth Escort".

Sounds like a real innovation to me: an online escort service for young people.

Free marketeers in the toilet in Iceland

These are evidently pictures of bankers who fled Iceland after leading the country into bankruptcy. A restaurant in Reykjavik paid homage to them in this clever way. Could similar tributes be organized in lower Manhattan? Or is the U.S.A. still pissing its future away by indulging the acolytes of Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman and the fop pied piper, Ronald Reagan? Ask Timothy Geithner.

(photo from the NYT)

$1.5 billion wind tunnel?

In the first three games at the new Yankee Stadium, there have been seventeen home runs. Yesterdays score was 22-4 with the Indians beating the Yankees. As I watched the spectacle on TV, it seemed that lazy pop flies to right field became homers.

Will this become a chapter in "Great Architectural Disasters"? An appendix to "Form Follows Fiasco?" Will the place have to be re-engineered? Will they have to build a huge screen like the one in the L.A. Coliseum left field when the Dodgers first
moved west?

Stay tuned.

After watching Obama’s first “Open for Questions” session

Old political communications model:

Elect a “conservative” president who maintains a sphinx-like presence.

Rely upon “journalists” and pundits acceptable to Rupert Murdock, G.E. and the corporate owned media along with talking heads from bought-and-paid-for right wing think tanks to blather 24/7 cable TV spin on public events.

Call this “democracy.” (Heimlich maneuver may be necessary at this point.)

New communications model:

Elect a progressive president interested in direct contact with citizens and who’s willing to speak AND listen.

Bypass the carefully selected, well paid, reliable corporate spin doctors. Instead, use a variety of means -- town halls, talk show visits, internet chats, and new media – to frame and motivate public deliberation and debate.

Celebrate modest steps toward a revival of citizen-based democracy.

Prepare for blasts of hot air from those who’ve profited from the Old model.

Probably too utopian, but I’m like that.

Langdon's visit to the Obama inauguration: Some photos here.

Again in the forefront of every backward step:
U.S. refuses to sign ban on cluster bombs

OSLO, Norway (AP) — An Afghan teenager who lost both legs in a cluster bomb explosion helped persuade his country to change its stance and join nearly 100 nations in signing a treaty Wednesday banning the disputed weapons.

Afghanistan was initially reluctant to join the pact — which the United States and Russia have refused to support — but agreed to after lobbying by victims maimed by cluster munitions, including 17-year-old Soraj Ghulan Habib. The teen, who uses a wheelchair, met with his country's ambassador to Norway, Jawed Ludin, at a two-day signing conference in Oslo.

[And for what reason, I wonder, does the U.S. insist upon using one of the most unambiguously evil devices mankind has ever devised? The story continues ..... ]

The U.S., Russia and other countries refusing to sign the treaty say cluster bombs have legitimate military uses, such as repelling advancing troop columns.

Cluster bomblets are packed by the hundreds into artillery shells, bombs or missiles, which scatter them over vast areas. Some fail to explode immediately. The unexploded bomblets can then lie dormant for years until they are disturbed, often by children attracted by their small size and bright colors.

The group Handicap International says 98 percent of cluster-bomb victims are civilians, and 27 percent are children.

* * * * * * * * * * *

The teenager mentioned in the news story is not the one I've pictured. The photo comes from journalist John Scully's web site, Am I Dead Yet?

Human flesh search engines -- another dark side of the internet

The Obama campaign's use of the internet to mobilize positive, political participant is one of the brighter chapters in the Net's presence as a contribution to public life. Now from China comes some awful news about ways in which "human flesh search engines" are used by aggressive moralists to hound people suspected of wrongdoing.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

Beijing - Some call it a weapon in the hands of a righteous army, forged so that wrongdoers might be smitten. Others say it simply allows a mob of vigilantes to publicly vilify and humiliate anyone they choose to pick on through grotesque invasions of privacy.

Either way, the peculiarly Chinese Internet phenomenon known as the "human flesh search engine," a citizen-driven, blog-based hunt for alleged undesirables, claimed a fresh victim this month when a mid-ranking government official lost his job.

Accused of accosting a young girl, Lin Jiaxiang found his name, address, phone number, and workplace plastered all over Chinese cyberspace for 250 million Internet users to see, and his alleged crime the subject of hundreds of insulting blog postings.

Mr. Lin might be thought to have gotten his just deserts, especially since the police refused to prosecute him because he'd been drunk. Grace Wang, however, a Chinese student at Duke University, was outraged when netizens back home, offended by her efforts to mediate a campus dispute between pro-Tibetan and Chinese students last March, tracked down her parents' address and emptied a bucket of feces by their front door. . . . .

* * * * * * * *

It's easy to imagine mud slinging campaigns of this sort in the U.S. as well.

China's plans to bailout Detroit

Chinese carmakers SAIC and Dongfeng have plans to acquire GM and Chrysler, China’s 21st Century Business Herald reports today. . . . The paper cites a senior official of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology– the state regulator of China’s auto industry– who dropped the hint that “the auto manufacturing giants in China, such as Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and Dongfeng Motor Corporation, have the capability and intention to buy some assets of the two crisis-plagued American automakers.”

A take-over of a large overseas auto maker would fit perfectly into China’s plans. As reported before, China has realized that its export chances are slim without unfettered access to foreign technology. The brand cachet of Chinese cars abroad is, shall we say, challenged. The Chinese could easily export Made-in-China VWs, Toyotas, Buicks. If their joint venture partner would let them. The solution: Buy the joint venture partner. Especially, when he’s in deep trouble.

At current market valuations (GM is worth less than Mattel) the Chinese government can afford to buy GM with petty cash. Even a hundred billion $ would barely dent China’s more than $2t in currency reserves.

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/breaking-news-chinese-may-buy-gm-and-chrysler/

* * * * * * *
Is this what has finally become of the Bush/neocon/Republican Party dreams for America as the "world's lone superpower"?
- Langdon

Vroom-Vro0m!! -- Detroit in crisis, no surprise

From my vantage point, what’s happening to Detroit is the culminationof a slowly developing car crash.

Anyone who’s read Keith Bradsher’s “High and Mighty,” a social history of the SUV, understands the broad coalition of groups – the companies, labor unions, federal and state politicians, suburban families, and others – who came together to resist building fuel efficient automobiles and push for big, heavy, profitable vehicles. Several of my students who’ve done internships at GM in recent years have come back with the same basic story. A good many top level managers were fully aware that corporate culture and the firm’s product line needed drastic reform to respond to the realities of peak oil and climate change. But in the middle layers or the organization, inertia prevailed. Equally disappointing from my students’ reports is the fact
that while young engineers recently graduated from the best engineering schools were aware of the pending energy crisis and the need for “sustainable technology,” their inclination was to keep designing vroom-vroom muscle cars, as if the power fantasies of the 1950s and 1960s were still the cool way to go.

Those who argue that a bailout of Detroit should revolutionize its “corporate culture” should include money for psychotherapy of the technical staff.

- Langdon

American power fantasies today: Housing

The above photo shows unfinished McMansions in Las Vegas, construction halted by the mortgage crisis. A story from the ironically named "Center for American Progress" web page tells the sad story.

Green technology updates

GM chief admits failure to develop hybrid auto.

Detroit has long dragged its heels in energy saving, planet saving technology.

"Not making a hybrid car like the Prius was a "mistake," outspoken General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz told a room of Chevy Volt "fan boys" at the New York Auto Show this week.

"We had the technology to come out with a hybrid at the same time as Toyota," Lutz said Tuesday. "In hindsight, it was a mistake. ... We made the mistake and we won't make it again." [ABC News]

Warren Buffett's portfolio includes trains

It's been clear since the energy crises of the 1970s that a wonderfully "appropriate" or "green" technology would be a decent railroad system like the ones that exist in Europe.

"Want to invest in a green industry that employs the latest technology, reduces U.S. oil consumption and is priced very attractively? Look no further than the railroads. Laggards for decades after the 19th-century boom ended, they're hot again.

"There was steady traffic growth until last year, and the trend looks good once the economy gets back up to speed," says Kenneth Kremar, an economist who follows the railroad industry for consulting firm Global Insight. Perhaps that's why railroad stocks have largely escaped the battering that other sectors have taken so far this year." [CNN Money]

Confronting Tyranny and Stupidity: What Works? --
My talk at the Democracy Teach-in

Below are links to the edited YouTube version of the talk I gave at the teach-in on democracy held at Rensselaer, October 24, 2007. This version contains the overhead slides I used to illustrate some ideas. Please click on each of the segments separately in order, otherwise YouTube may direct you to the earlier version, out of sequence and without the slides! Unfortunately, the parallels I was suggesting in the talk seem increasingly apparent.

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:



(My thanks to Ethan Bach for the video editing.)

Welcome to Troy -- Home of Banned Art




Right up there with...OH, NO!!

















The history of banned art is truly an ignoble one, ranging from silly gestures to monstrous forms of oppression. Most famous of all, was the banning of some of the greatest works of painting and sculpture in modern Europe during Hitler's reign of terror. The black and white picture above shows people lining up for a special showing of "Entartete Kunst," degenerate art, works that Hitler had confiscated and censored. This exhibition in Munich, July 1937, was emblematic of the waves of police state persecution that led directly to the Holocaust. From a web site on this period of history:

"Entartete Kunst portrayed the eclipse of an age of "decadence and chaos", while the Great German Art exhibit heralded the dawn of a new epoch of Governmental control of the Arts: sanitized, uninspired, and devoid of dissent.

Entartete kunst was just the tip of the iceberg: In 1937 alone more than sixteen thousand examples of modern art were confiscated as 'degenerate' by a committee headed by Joseph Goebbels, Hitlers second in command (and Minister for Public Enlightenement and Propaganda)

On March 20th, 1939, the Degenerate Art Commission ordered over one thousand paintings and almost four thousand watercolors and drawings burned in the courtyard of a fire station in Berlin. Other works were auctioned off to the highest bidder ...."

* * * * * * * *

Isn't it interesting to notice the company that Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the City of Troy, New York are keeping in their efforts to sanitize both campus and city of controversial works of art?

Joseph Weizenbaum, computer scientist and social critic, is dead at 85

He was a good friend. I learned a great deal from him and appreciated his kindness and support during good times and bad. His book, Computer Power and Human Reason, is still the most sensible philosophical exploration of computing and the human prospect.

Here's the story from the New York Times.

University tramples free speech and artistic liberty:
some lingering questions

Yielding to pressure from right wing political groups, Shirley Anne Jackson, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has decided to make permanent the university’s the ban on “Virtual Jihadi,” an exhibition by visiting artist Wafaa Bilal. (See below for earlier developments.) A statement by William Walker, Vice President for Strategic Communications and External Relations, tries to explain:

“The decision was based on numerous concerns, including, in particular two characteristics of the video game in the exhibit, as affirmed by the artist: First, that the video game in the exhibit is derived from the product of a terrorist organization; and second, that the video game is targeted to and suggests the killing of the President of the United States.

Rensselaer fully supports academic and artistic freedom. We respect the rights of all members of the Rensselaer community and their guests to express their opinions and viewpoints. However, as stewards of a private university, we have the right and, indeed, the responsibility to ensure that university resources are used in ways that are in the overall best interests of the institution.”

The exhibit has been moved to the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, a community center where artistic freedom is still revered.

The episode raises several important questions.

1. Do the leaders of Rensselaer recognize the difference between fact and fiction?

The answer is clearly “No.” By the standards articulated in the present ban, if a university theater group ever decides to produce Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the actors could well be arrested for planning and enacting a criminal conspiracy.

2. Does the university recognize the principle of free spelled out in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution?

Again the answer seems to be “No.” R.P.I. has assumed the power to curtail speech that is protected by the nation’s founding law.

3. Does the phrase “Rensselaer fully supports academic and artistic freedom” have any significance? No. These words are hollow, without any real substance. Something is “full” in the R.P.I. administration, but it is not recognition of academic and artistic freedom.

4. How will the faculty and students respond to this outrageous decision?

Good question. At present widespread torpor on campus is a perfect complement to President Jackson’s autocratic style of so-called “governance.”

5. Given recent the events, what would be an appropriate name for the fabulously costly building -- the “Experimental Media Performing Arts Center” (EMPAC) – the university will soon open?

How about: SMPAC – Sanitized Media Performing Arts Center
Our motto: Guaranteed not to offend, or your money back!

* * * * * * *

UPDATE:
Sanctuary shut down by malicious Troy bureaucrats

On the morning following last night's talk by Wafaa Bilal and his dialog with the audience gathered at the Sanctuary for Independent Media, the City of Troy decided to shut the place down. The Sanctuary has been open for several years, so you'd think that issues about building codes would have been addressed in a different context. It's obvious what this abuse of power by city officials is all about.

Here's an excerpt from the Times Union:

Troy shutters site of 'Jihadi' video game
Sanctuary for Independent Media: Doors at issue

By BOB GARDINIER, Staff writer
March 11, 2008

TROY - The controversial "Virtual Jihadi" video game and art exhibit has now had two very short premieres.


Wafaa Bilal's "Virtual Jihadi" video game exhibit that features himself as a suicide bomber on a mission to assassinate President Bush opened last night at the Sanctuary for Independent Media and this morning the city shuttered the building for code violations.

"They put us out of business," Steve Pierce of the Media Alliance said. "They said we had doors that were not up to code."

Pierce said he got a call from city officials this morning telling him to close the building. . . . .

Art Police: the saga continues

Things are heating up around the censorship of artist Waffa Bilal at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (see my first postings on this story below).

There's a good YouTube interview with Bilal on the website of the Project for a New American University, along with an extensive written commentary about the matter by Brian Holmes.

Here's another link to the video:

Tonight, 3/10/08, at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, the banned exhibition will be shown, 6:00 for the reception for Professor Bilal, 7:00 for the exhibition of his work. Here's the announcement from the Sanctuary folks:

"Iraq-born video artist Wafaa Bilal will be on hand for a reception at 6 PM followed at 7 PM by a presentation about his installation "Virtual Jihadi" which will be on display at The Sanctuary for Independent Media through April 4, 2008. Admission is by
donation ($10 suggested, $5 student/low income). Another version of this installation opened on March 5, 2008 at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute but as reported by the Times Union
it was abruptly closed the following day.. . . . A local Republican
operative on the payroll of the City of Troy, Rensselaer County /and/ NY
State called for protests at the Monday, March 10 show opening at the
Sanctuary in an article in the Troy Record."

And this just in.... An unconfirmed report from one of my students indicates that the website of the College Republicans has been taken down by RPI. Irony of ironies. Will they scream "CENSORSHIP!!!!"?

You can't make this stuff up!

(For better or worse, the constitutionally protected web bile issued by the College Republicans has been preserved for posterity, but I won't bother reprinting it here.)

I'm looking forward to tonight's art program. Let's hope that people on all sides remain cool, respectful and non-violent, despite their disagreements.

- Langdon

Art Police Shut Down Exhibit at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Invade Classroom

Stories in the Washington Post, Newsday and Times Union describe the sad tale of a university responding to political pressure to close an exhibit by controversial artist Wafaa Bilal. Here are excerpts from the Post:

"In the video game that Wafaa Bilal created, his avatar is steely-eyed and hooded, with an automatic rifle at his side, an ammunition belt around his waist, a fuse in his hand and the mien of a knightly suicide-bomber. He is the "Virtual Jihadi." ...

"His work was briefly exhibited Thursday night at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. The game was projected on a giant screen so that one viewer at a time could play -- until administrators shut down the show Friday morning. The institute needed time to review the show's "origin, content and intent," said William N. Walker, a vice president." ....

* * * * *

The fracas included an unfortunate incident, one that casts a shadow over acdemic fredom at Rensselaer. From the Times Union:

"The controversy intensified Wednesday, when Bilal was scheduled to give a lecture and unveil his exhibit.

That afternoon, RPI students in a class taught by media arts professor Branda Miller were interviewing Bilal when he was pulled out of the room by RPI officials.

"It was very unsettling for me and my students," Miller said. "It would be unfortunate if Wafaa Bilal's art exhibition remains closed. The whole point of art is to encourage dialogue." ....

* * * *
The origin of the controversy arose from protests by the College Republicans on the campus, a group interested in works of art, at least the ones they think require censorship.

Fortunately, Bilal's exhibit will be shown off campus at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, a wonderful place where artists, writers and everyday folks gather to exhibit their works and exchange ideas, realizing the promise of the First Amendment freedoms, a project evidently too risky for the university to abide.

Another dimension of the story is that RPI is about to open a enormously costly "Experimental Media Performing Arts Center." The Bilal incident raises serious questions about how "experimental" the Center's offerings will be and who decides.

UPDATES:

A colleague in the Arts Department passed along the news that this morning, March 8, faculty in the Arts Department found themselves locked out of the building where they work because security was under orders (according to the posted guards) to prevent Wafaa from getting into the building!

Meanwhile a message from the RPI administration offered these chilling words of reassurance:

March 8, 2008

To the Rensselaer Community:

You may have seen coverage in the news media of actions taken by the
university regarding a visiting artist on campus. This is to provide
more information on this situation.

After becoming aware of and discussing concerns expressed by some
members of the Rensselaer community about a lecture and associated
exhibit by digital media artist Wafaa Bilal, the university decided to
allow his March 5 lecture to go forward. Most observers agreed that he
presented a stimulating and thought-provoking lecture.

We are pleased to have Mr. Bilal among us to contribute to the
intellectual and artistic life of the Institute, and we look forward
to his continued presence in our classrooms and studios as a visiting
artist.

During the unveiling of the artist's video game exhibition, "Virtual
Jihadi," important concerns surfaced that the work may be based on a
product of Al Qaeda, and questions were raised regarding its legality
and its consistency with the norms and policies of the Institute. The
university is considering various factors relating to the exhibition,
and has suspended it pending a more complete review of its origin,
content, and intent.

Rensselaer fully supports academic and artistic freedom. The question
under review regards the use of university resources to provide a
platform for what may be a product of a terrorist organization or
which suggests violence directed toward the President of the United
States and his family.

William N. Walker
Vice President for Strategic Communications and External Relations

* * * * * *

What could be more "thought-provoking" than censoring an art exhibit and blocking access to a university building?

(Sorry to have been away for a while. I'll be posting fairly frequently from now on.)

Better than building a tech park?

What a surprise. Here all these years I've been hanging out with people who think that closer ties between government and corporation in pursuit of high tech competitive advantage was the key to urban and region prosperity. It turns out that the best strategy may be that of encouraging gays to move into town. Shocked, shocked, I say!

From The Raw Story:

Study: 'Gay-friendly' cities enjoy more economic prosperity
David Edwards and Josh Catone
Published: Saturday June 23, 2007

Richard Florida, a professor from George Mason University and author of the book The Rise of the Creative Class argued that the more "gay-friendly" a city is, the more economically prosperous it will be.

In his March 2007 paper "There Goes the Neighborhood," Florida uses something he calls the "Bohemian-Gay Index" to demonstrate that "artistic, bohemian, and gay populations" have a "substantial effects on housing values across all permutations of the model and across all region sizes." He also found that more open and "gay-friendly" areas generally support higher income levels. . . . .

This morning on CNN's In the Money, Florida argued that educated kids are generally moving to the most "gay-friendly" cities after graduating from college because those cities tend to have the best job markets.

After realizing that the top 5 "gay-friendly" cities in the US -- San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Portland (Oregon), and Tampa -- are also prosperous centers of technological innovation, Florida decided to do a more thorough study. The results, he said, held up for other cities as well.

"Places that were open to gay and lesbian people were also the kind of places that could attract not only smart young people, but also Indian and Chinese immigrants who come here and start a lot of high tech companies," he said. "They were attracting people across the board, building up a talent base, and then innovating and starting these new enterprises."

The text of the paper in PDF is here.

Among peaceful nations: We're the number one! ...err, uh, make that number 96 !!!

On several ranking of nation states previously quoted on this blog -- environmental quality, strength of public education, health of democracy, etc. -- the good old U.S.A. has been significantly down in the ratings recently. Hence, I looked eagerly at a new study, "The Global Peace Index" prepared by the Vision of Humanity organization, a joint project of the Economist magazine and the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney, Australia. The study polled "an international panel of peace experts from Peace Institutes and Think Tanks" and rated the world's nations on several categories: measures of ongoing domestic and international conflict; measures of societal safety and security; measures of militarisation, etc.

The United States came in at number 96, just behind Yemen but a notch better than Iran. Will this study get much attention here? Probably not. Americans know that "We're Number One" in every way, including in our role the world's best hope for enduring peace.

More "Support the Troops"

It was the best of armies. It was the worst of armies. Two news stories paint a picture of the way the nation honors the defense of freedom on Memorial Day.

From The Daily Freeman (appropriately named)

Appeals court bars Cheney foes from West Point
Associated Press
05/25/2007

WHITE PLAINS - The mere presence of Vice President Dick Cheney does not turn West Point into a public forum and is not an "open invitation" to protesters, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.

Cheney is scheduled to deliver the commencement speech at the U.S. Military Academy today, and about 1,000 people had hoped to march onto the campus for an anti-war demonstration. ....

The protesters' attorney, Stephen Bergstein, said the military gets too much respect.

"No other institution in our society enjoys the deference that the military establishment enjoys," he said. "There are things you can't do in our society, and protesting at a military institution is one of them. It's a shame because they invite Cheney and he can say whatever he wants."

Besides the constitutional issue, the court agreed with the Army that it had legitimate security concerns.
* * * * *

[In another story, some "legitimate security concerns" show up prominently.]


CNN: Young officers leaving service at 'alarming' rate

CNN reported on Friday about the "alarming number" of mid-level army officers leaving the military as soon as they complete their initial commitment, many of them citing family reasons and multiple deployments. The army has been forced to offer new incentives for re-enrolling, including bonuses and extra training.

The percentage of career officers deciding not to stay in the military is the highest it has been since the Vietnam War and includes many West Point graduates, "creating a brain drain in the top ranks." A general interviewed by CNN expressed concern that "we're losing the next generation of future combat leaders for the army."

* * * * * *
Perhaps what our intelligent career officers have figured out is that the current and future wars of Bush and Cheney have had a negative effect upon the defense of freedom in "Homeland" (formerly known as the U.S.A.). In years to come perhaps Memorial Day will become a time to remember the wisdom of avoiding the kinds of unjust, futile slaughter that cynical old "leaders" often impose on American youth. In this mode, Memorial Day could start by asking: What kind of war is it that will not permit photographing coffins of our fallen soldiers?

Support the troops with censorship: military brass unplugs MySpace and YouTube

The military has taken another brilliant move in Iraq. From Wired:

"Fresh from its battle against blogs, the U.S. military now appears to be going after video and social networking sites (at least those it doesn't control). Effective Monday, U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan will not be allowed access to websites like MySpace and YouTube using military networks, Stars and Stripes reports."

Wally Shirra, astronaut, dies at 84

From an article in the Guardian

``Mostly it's lousy out there,'' Schirra said in 1981 on the occasion of the first space shuttle flight. ``It's a hostile environment, and it's trying to kill you. The outside temperature goes from a minus 450 degrees to a plus 300 degrees. You sit in a flying Thermos bottle.'' . . . .

In one of his last interviews, last month with The Associated Press, Schirra said he was struck by the fragility of Earth and the absence of borders.

``I left Earth three times. I found no place else to go. Please take care of Spaceship Earth,'' he said.

Bush spying on the citizenry continues (without warrant)


From the New York Times story:

"Senior Bush administration officials told Congress on Tuesday that they could not pledge that the administration would continue to seek warrants from a secret court for a domestic wiretapping program, as it agreed to do in January.

Rather, they argued that the president had the constitutional authority to decide for himself whether to conduct surveillance without warrants."

* * * * *
I suppose this is a policy that "conservatives" in the Republican party would endorse. But what in the world are they "conserving"? Certainly it can't be rights and liberties specified in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution.

America's Reichstag fire continues.

Duty, Honor, Country: The long grey line gets smart!

From the Boston Globe comes an interesting story about the mass exodus from military service of recent graduates from West Point.

"Recent graduates of the US Military Academy at West Point are choosing to leave active duty at the highest rate in more than three decades, a sign to many military specialists that repeated tours in Iraq are prematurely driving out some of the Army's top young officers.

According to statistics compiled by West Point, of the 903 Army officers commissioned upon graduation in 2001, nearly 46 percent left the service last year -- 35 percent at the conclusion of their five years of required service, and another 11 percent over the next six months. And more than 54 percent of the 935 graduates in the class of 2000 had left active duty by this January, the statistics show."

Several years ago I visited West Point with a boy scout troop. I was fascinated by the rhetoric of General Douglas MacArthur's farewell speech to the military academy, words engraved in marble at a memorial in the middle of the campus.

"The long gray line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses, thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country."

I wonder what the million ghosts would say about the deranged, dishonorable debacle George W. Bush requires our troops to endure in Iraq.

The demise of community radio

It has been sad to watch the demise of WRPI, the once great college/community radio station. The Albany Times Union has the lamentable story. (Note the pungent political metaphors, something the university might worry about showing up on Google.) Here are some excerpts:

* * * * * *

Operating on different wavelengths
Host's departure latest sign of conflict between WRPI's student leaders, community

By MARC PARRY, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Monday, April 9, 2007
TROY -- One of the country's oldest college FM radio stations is approaching its 50th anniversary racked by static between students who run the station and community members who host many shows.

The upheaval at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute station, WRPI (91.5), has driven at least five community members off the air, including a 19-year station veteran who was ousted last month.

At one level, the problem is a narrow clash of personalities and competing interests. But the conflict also raises broader questions about the role of college radio.

And its impact is supercharged by the 10,000-watt signal -- stronger than many commercial stations -- that lets WRPI broadcast to listeners over a 75-mile radius that touches New York, Massachusetts and Vermont.

Over the past few months, critics have accused the young leaders of WRPI, a student club, of muzzling diverse voices and targeting older community hosts who help fill air time by broadcasting as their guests. In a published newspaper interview, one went so far as to compare the students to Nazis.

Some of the most recent drama at WRPI's sticker-splattered basement studios began March 1. That's when the seven-student Executive Committee that manages the station, known as the "E-Comm," revoked the membership of 19-year veteran Mickie Lynn.

The self-described retired environmental educator, Reiki practitioner and peace activist from Delmar said the program she produced, a feminist music show called "Face the Music," has since left the airwaves after nearly 29 years.

Lynn's banishment led another community host, human rights activist Judith Brink, to deliver a March 18 resignation speech that opened with these words: "To remain silent is to be complicit."

"I don't know why community members are being picked off one by one," Brink, 67, said in an interview. "I don't understand what's going on. And I don't understand why the atmosphere in the station was making me sick."

WRPI President Trent Gillaspie called Brink's comments a misunderstanding of the situation.

Yes, Gillaspie said, his No. 1 goal is increasing participation and listenership among the Troy institute's 7,400 students. But student leaders are not -- repeat, not -- targeting non-student broadcasters.

When members have been kicked out, the RPI junior said, it was for legitimate policy violations. Lynn's ouster arose from "a persistent lack of cooperation with the E-Comm," both in disrespecting students and trying to manipulate time slots behind their backs, he said.

"If any of these things we've kicked out community members for in the past had been done by students or an E-Comm member, the same actions would be taken," Gillaspie, 21, said in an e-mail. "We're not targeting community members, that's just where the problem has shown because of ongoing conflict."

Though the particular circumstances of WRPI and the Albany-area radio market are unique, in general conflicts over radio time are not. There just aren't that many independent, community-centered radio stations today, said Eric Klinenberg, a New York University sociologist and author of a book about media consolidation called "Fighting for Air."

"One trend I've observed in cities across the country is that, as those kinds of stations have become rare -- as air time for locally engaged programming has diminished -- that leaves a lot of people and groups fighting for what remains," Klinenberg said. "Sadly, I think that the structure of the radio industry today makes it more likely that groups whose interests are probably very similar wind up going after each other. This is a fairly familiar phenomenon." . . . .

Its money comes both from RPI's student union and a nonprofit group that raises funds on its behalf. Its reach is huge. It has turned over more of its air time to community hosts -- about 28 shows right now -- who have kept the station going when student interest has waned. And it's gained a following for airing progressive shows like "Democracy Now!"

Gillaspie says managing WRPI has taught him more than attending RPI. His grasp of its details was evident on a recent tour of the basement station.

Moving through its 11 rooms, the former College Republican rattled off figures about everything from the cost of the soundproof carpeting to the height of the wood-paneled console.

Gillaspie carried a black binder that laid out his 21 station goals. The mission: "To increase recognition of and participation in WRPI by the student membership of RPI."

"This is a student-run radio station, so we're primarily here for the student participation," he said. "The community members have done such a phenomenal job in helping when we're in times of need, and they've added a lot of diversity to our station."

That diversity has eroded over the past two years. Student interest has surged, while conflicts have pushed out community hosts.

Elonge Ekalele, a Cameroon native who hosted the call-in talk show "Africa in Motion," was kicked out. So was Dennis Karius of "The Portside." Judith Brink of "Voices from the Prison Action Network" and Bonnie Hoag of "Necessary Radio" both quit.

All of this worries people like RPI media arts professor Branda Miller. She feels devaluing the community role in WRPI is wasting a tremendous resource.

"I think that WRPI not only gives this incredible real-world experience for the students, but it also serves as an important outreach opportunity for Rensselaer, a real bridge between town and gown," she said.

That bridge was damaged late last year, when a Metroland article about WRPI quoted Hoag comparing the E-Comm to "Brownshirts," a reference to Nazi storm troopers. The executive board of the student union subsequently issued guidelines that, by May 15, non-RPI-affiliated members should amount to no more than 30 percent of station membership.

* * * * * *

The idea that these developments stem from a misunderstanding is ludicrous. While the students have a legal right to run the station, the pattern of recent decisions is clear. Folks from the community who are women, activists and people of color are being drummed out.

Bogus news for an increasingly fake medium

The Independent reports (evidently you have to read the press in the UK to learn these things) that the Bush Administration has been using "legitimate" television stations (cough, cough) to run its propaganda.

" Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies' products.

Investigators from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are seeking information about stations across the country after a report produced by a campaign group detailed the extraordinary extent of the use of such items.

The report, by the non-profit group Centre for Media and Democracy, found that over a 10-month period at least 77 television stations were making use of the faux news broadcasts, known as Video News Releases (VNRs). Not one told viewers who had produced the items.

"We know we only had partial access to these VNRs and yet we found 77 stations using them," said Diana Farsetta, one of the group's researchers. "I would say it's pretty extraordinary. The picture we found was much worse than we expected going into the investigation in terms of just how widely these get played and how frequently these pre-packaged segments are put on the air."

* * * * * *
During a speaking visit to an America journalism school recently I talked with students and faculty about the kinds of jobs graduates of the school expected to find. The strong consensus was that most of them would find work in public relations firms, not in traditional news reporting. Perhaps this is one of the ways that the boundaries between news and propaganda are being erased. Even the professionals can't tell the difference.

Automatic Professor Machine lecture restored

L.C. Winner's "Introducing the Automatic Professor Machine" lecture has been offline for a while. It has now been restored as a streaming video, about 23 minutes long. It takes a time to load and the transition between parts 1 and 2 is still a little rough, but its compelling vision of the future of technology-centered education is worth the occasional glitches in transmission

Still happily ensconced as C.E.O. of EDU-SHAM, Inc., L.C. tells me that he's been busy on a U.S. government no-bid contract to restore quality education to Iraq by introducing APMs in a variety of bomb-proof formats: Shia, Sunni, Kurd, Insurgent, and the newly introduced Refugee model (conveniently placed on escape routes for those fleeing the country).

"With our successful efforts in Iraqi reconstruction just about complete, I look forward to launching our new innovations in Glow-Ball pedagogy," he commented from Baghdad recently.

Political tsunami: the election of 2006

I'm beginning to look at the analysis of the 2006 election results. This story in the NYT contains a basic breakdown. (You have to click on the link in the left margin "Survey of Voters: Who They Were.")



Much of the data is encouraging, the breakdown on youth, black, hispanic, voters, etc. The Times story emphasizes that evangelicals stuck with the Republicans. No surprise there. But trends for much of the electorate moved in a different direction.

Women were 52% of all voters and voted 56% Democratic. Young voters 18-29, 12% of the total, voted 61% for the Dems. A new youth revolt against the forces of war, imperialism and inequality?

A first glance at these numbers reveals some very, very hopeful signs. I recall the warmth, enthusiasm and explicitly political message of the Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young "Living with War" concert at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center last August, thinking "this is great, but too good to be true." But it was one of many glimmerings of a tsunami on the horizon. Of course, it will take a lot of work to continue and to build upon these gains.

- Langdon

Call Center: the movie

If you've got ten minutes and want a good chuckle, check out "Call Center," a film about global information networks that connect East and West. It's well produced and hilarious.

(Thanks to Aneel Salman for telling me about this! - LW)

It can't happen here? (Look again)

From the very beginning of this blog I've covered the not-so-slow movement of the U.S.A. from a democratic government toward political forms that institute fascism on several significant dimensions (see earlier posts). With the passage of the passage of The Military Commissions Act of 2006, the country has taken another bold step in this direction. Apparently oblivious of the significance of habeas corpus, bill of attainder, and, for that matter, the Bill of Rights, our benighted Congress and President Bush have repealled the most basic Constitutional protections of our rights and liberties. Below are two items, first an article from the Washington Post on recent Bush administration moves to eliminate the courts from protecting having a role in defending citizen rights, second a letter from Ed Furey to Juan Cole on the broader horizons of the legislation, published in Cole's blog, Informed Comment, archived 10/20/2006.


* * * * *
Court Told It Lacks Power in Detainee Cases

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 20, 2006; A18


Moving quickly to implement the bill signed by President Bush this week that authorizes military trials of enemy combatants, the administration has formally notified the U.S. District Court here that it no longer has jurisdiction to consider hundreds of habeas corpus petitions filed by inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

In a notice dated Wednesday, the Justice Department listed 196 pending habeas cases, some of which cover groups of detainees. The new Military Commissions Act (MCA), it said, provides that "no court, justice, or judge" can consider those petitions or other actions related to treatment or imprisonment filed by anyone designated as an enemy combatant, now or in the future.

Beyond those already imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay or elsewhere, the law applies to all non-U.S. citizens, including permanent U.S. residents.

The new law already has been challenged as unconstitutional by lawyers representing the petitioners. The issue of detainee rights is likely to reach the Supreme Court for a third time.

Habeas corpus, a Latin term meaning "you have the body," is one of the oldest principles of English and American law. It requires the government to show a legal basis for holding a prisoner. A series of unresolved federal court cases brought against the administration over the last several years by lawyers representing the detainees had left the question in limbo.

Two years ago, in Rasul v. Bush, which gave Guantanamo detainees the right to challenge their detention before a U.S. court, and in this year's Hamdan v. Rumsfeld , the Supreme Court appeared to settle the issue in favor of the detainees. But the new legislation approved by Congress last month, which gives Bush the authority to try detainees before military commissions, included a provision removing judicial review for all habeas claims.

Immediately after Bush signed the act into law Tuesday, the Justice Department sent a letter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit asserting the new authorities and informing the court that it no longer had jurisdiction over a combined habeas case that had been under consideration since 2004. The U.S. District Court cases, which had been stayed pending the appeals court decision, were similarly invalid, the administration informed that court on Wednesday.

A number of legal scholars and members of Congress, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), have said that the habeas provision of the new law violates a clause of the Constitution that says the right to challenge detention "shall not be suspended" except in cases of "rebellion or invasion." Historically, the Constitution has been interpreted to apply equally to citizens and noncitizens under U.S. jurisdiction.

The administration's persistence on the issue "demonstrates how difficult it is for the courts to enforce [the clause] in the face of a resolute executive branch that is bound and determined to resist it," said Joseph Margulies, a Northwestern University law professor involved in the detainee cases. . . . .

* * * * * * * *
The Unconstitutionality of the Military Commissions Act: Furey

Ed Furey writes:

Professor Cole:

You barely scratched the surface on the unconstitutionality of the so-called terror legislation. Beyond repealing habeas corpus, another grotesque violation of the Constitution is implicated in that legislation. The Constitution specifically forbids the passage of a “bill of attainder.” In the old days, when kings and others were not certain they get a judge or jury to convict someone of a crime, they would simply declare them guilty (attainted) and imprison, torture and/or execute them. When Parliaments did this they passed a “bill of attainder” declaring the person guilty of a crime. What this recent piece of legislation has done is to declare a whole class of persons, “unlawful enemy combatants,” to be criminals, subject to punishment -- imprisonment without trial and torture -- at the discretion of the president. By the way, this does not exclude American citizens.

The Constitution also prohibits “corruption of the blood” which was another old tyrant’s trick in which the families of the attainted were also declared guilty of the crimes because they were related to the criminal. This provided a sort of pseudo-legal sanction for wiping out the families of political enemies, especially those who might succeed to titles of nobility – and seek revenge. By declaring the whole bloodline criminal, you get to kill women and small children whose murders would otherwise be distasteful. It is expressly forbidden in the Constitution. Nevertheless, punishment of relatives of the accused has also become United States policy.

The ban on corruption of the blood would seem to be violated by the common U.S. practice in Iraq of taking hostages and imprisoning people suspected of nothing other than being related to the suspect (the taking of hostages is also banned under the Geneva Conventions). U.S. forces held the two sons of the head of the Iraqi air defense hostage in Abu Ghraib until he agreed to surrender. Being imprisoned is a form of punishment for the person being held, hence the corruption of the blood. Once in US custody he was killed, in what the Army investigation called a homicide.

It is interesting that the current administration and Congress are descending into barbarities so ancient and so grotesque that most Americans have never heard of them. They reside banned in obscure corners of the Constitution because the Founding Fathers knew them well enough to forbid them. Nevertheless, they are there, and as Casey Stengel liked to say: You could look it up.

By the way, the administration is also on thin Constitutional ice in sending mercenaries to wage war in Iraq (more than 600 have been killed). Private persons waging war has a familiar name to it – piracy. And for all the sentimentality about “Pirates of the Caribbean” international law was practically invented to check piracy, and then extended to other matters. Bin Laden and gang are, among other things, pirates and subject to arrest anywhere they are identified on the planet, under international conventions.

Governments used to be able to authorize private citizens to wage war as privateers. These were usually ship owners, who fitted their vessels out with guns and went hunting for enemy shipping. To make what would otherwise be piracy legal, governments would issue letters of marque and reprisal, in effect authorizing or licensing the private person to wage war on their behalf. Privateering, however, was outlawed 150 years ago, in the Declaration of Paris, to which the United States is a party (curiously, no 150th anniversary celebrations took place back in April, when that milestone was passed – well, maybe not so curious after all). And, as it turns out, the Constitution also takes up the matter. Only Congress may issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal. It has not done so in this war. I don’t believe it has done so since the War of 1812.

This actually came up, slightly in WWII. Charles Lindbergh was working with Lockheed to extend the range of P-38s and train American pilots into efficiently flying over vast distances of water, as required by the island campaign. He went out on several combat missions and was credited with shooting down at least one Japanese plane. This was all kept pretty quiet at the time, because he was technically a civilian (FDR was still angry at his America First role and refused to reinstate him as a colonel in the Army Air Force), although I suppose if he had been captured, the U.S. might have been able to argue that he was also technically an officer.

As a matter of fact, there seems to be no legal basis whatsoever for Coalition Provisional Authority, either in American law or international law. '