Likelihood of Success

Facebook debate on Iraq

Posted by Ron Coleman on December 15, 2008

Ron Dean Esmay makes the one point about Iraq, the presidency and GWB and history that everyone’s all too willing to forget http://bit.ly/9R2A.via Twitter – 2:01pm

– 14 Comments

Brian Gocial at 3:12pm December 14

I certainly hope you’re right that in the long-term invading Iraq will turn out to have good consequences. But I think the only way “history will not be kind to many of the so-called ‘progressives'” is if the United States Constitution is no longer the governing law of our country.

Judith Weiss at 3:27pm December 14

The people most likely to play games with the Constitution are Dems. For example, Obama wants to use the Supreme Court to redistribute income, which is not its job.

Timbo Jones at 4:29pm December 14

True, the Supreme Court is not supposed to do such things…which is why I guess the Bush administration doesn’t bother with such things when conducting unconstitutional acts.

Rhoads Hollowell at 4:46pm December 14

I am sorry, Ron, but the Project For a New American Century was an evil group from the start, and the end does not justify the means, even in this case.

Ron Coleman at 5:01pm December 14

Brian, you’re certainly entitled to your opinion on that matter!

Which were the objectionable means you have in mind, Rhoads? Humor me.

Rhoads Hollowell at 5:07pm December 14

attacking a sovereign country just because you think it would be a good idea, and then making up the justification so you could do so.

Ron Coleman at 5:15pm December 14

Well, I suppose if I accept all your false premises as true, I’d agree with you. Yeah, definitely evil.

Rhoads Hollowell at 5:17pm December 14

And if you believed in the concept of the rule of law, you would accept my premises as true. There was only one reason that the war in Iraq could ever have been judged as legal: that we did indeed find WMD. We did not. Therefore it was not legal under international law. My source for this is Dean Slaughter of the WWS, a source I think is reliable.

Ron Coleman at 5:34pm December 14

I must admit this is the first time I ever heard it suggested that legality of an act is to be determined based on ex post evaluation of whether certain facts assumed to be true ex ante are in fact true, regardless of what a reasonable person would have believed ex ante.

I knew it that this was the basis — along with taking causalities — for Democrats to decide whether or not they supported the war when it was going badly, but not whether it was legal in the first place.

There is a vast degree of opinion regarding the war’s legality:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_the_Iraq_War

As a general rule almost every opinion on the matter promulgated by an institution, person or other entity came to a conclusion that could be predicted based on that source’s political inclinations regarding the matter.

That doesn’t mean you’re wrong or that it doesn’t matter. It means the question is more complex than you suggest.

Brian Gocial at 6:55pm December 14

Preemptive war, manipulating intelligence, illegal wiretapping, torture, rendition, signing statements, executive secrecy, indefinite imprisonment w/o due process … there is nothing complex about the unconstitutionality of these “means.”

Stephen Ban at 9:59pm December 14

and yet, no further terrorist acts on US soil, and ample evidence that many have been thwarted. It’s a fascinating choice… “unlawful” (your words) and alive vs. self-righteous and dead… complex world out there, isn’t it?

Ron Coleman at 10:50pm December 14

Not only that, Stephen. “International law” is pretty much of interest to those on the outside looking in. Every single country in a position to project power on any level ignores international law when it is in its interest do so, including all the weak sisters of Western Europe. And not only decades ago, but whenever it works for tghem.

Brian, you are mistaking political sloganeering for reality.

Brian Gocial at 8:33am December 15

Ron,

I only wish these serious issues were political sloganeering rather than reality …

But back to the point of your original post, history will be the judge of who is correct. Until then, we’ll each live in the reality of our own choosing.

Ron Coleman at 12:59pm December 15

Well, mentally anyway. Reality chooses us!

—

Pretty good stuff, and lots of anger still boiling. Still, it seems that great minds think alike:

History will one day credit Bush with patience, multilateralism and conviction. But right now, history is still being made. And there is a war to be continued and to be won.

Can you guess who said it? No peeking!

Posted in Oppression, Orient, Past is prologue, Politics and Poker, Stragety | 1 Comment »

Now that’s a contract I’d like to draft

Posted by Ron Coleman on December 15, 2008

Hitting the wall.

On an hourly basis, that is. Jimmie does the heavy lifting:

No wonder our car makers can’t get their heads above water. They have a legal document, just for dealing with employees, that weighs 22 pounds and is nine inches thick. Have you read anything that was nine inches tall? I’ll help you out. This hardback copy of War and Peace is only 2.7 inches thick.

How on earth can we justify keeping this going?

Posted in Gelt, Sisyphus | Leave a Comment »

…. and I can barely afford it.

Posted by Ron Coleman on December 15, 2008

Um, by the way, why do you supposed there are so many hungry people in New Jersey that we’re all going to help?

Could it have to do with … this? Hat tip to Inv. A. Desoda (via Dean’s World).

Posted in Gelt, Sisyphus | Leave a Comment »

Have a judiciously jolly time.

Posted by Ron Coleman on December 14, 2008

Above the Law reproduces “A Lawyerly Holiday Party Invite.”

This invitation may vary depending on the laws of your state.

Posted in Jocularity, Lex scripta, Oppression | Leave a Comment »

East of eatin’

Posted by Ron Coleman on December 12, 2008

Bloggers for Bounty

It would be best if New Jersey, where I live, had taxation, social and economic policies that encouraged economic growth instead of discouraging it, but it doesn’t. And it is ironic that those most vulnerable to bad economic policy routinely vote into office the people most responsible for the policies that contribute to their misery time and time again. That doesn’t mean, however, that if people, our neighbors, are going hungry in what is still an environment of historically, and absolutely, phenomenal bounty, we should as humans and citizens stand by and watch.

New Jersey is called the Garden State because it once had a lot farms, of course. Recent estimates are that it still has 4.7 times more agriculture than you think. And please do not confuse me with the facts on this point! Not surprisingly, however, there are a lot of people in my home state who don’t have enough to eat.

A quarter of a million people in New Jersey depend on the generosity of their fellow citizens to meet their dietary needs. The Community Food Bank of New Jersey reports that requests for food have gone up 30 percent, but donations are down by 25 percent. Its warehouse shelves, typically stocked with food, are bare, and for the first time in its 25-year history, the Food Bank is developing a rationing mechanism.

For that reason I’m participating in this campaign among bloggers in my state to encourage support of New Jersey food banks, sponsored by the Community Food Bank of New Jersey. It’s a non-partisan effort. This Monday, December 15, we’re trying to get 100 New Jersey-based bloggers to post in support of the Food Bank. This has been coordinated by Deb Smith of Jersey Bites, and she, incidentally, is still looking for participant bloggers.

With the number of families across the country counting on churches and food banks to feed their families increasing at astronomical rates this year, the Food Bank needs our help now more than ever. So, help.

Posted in Gelt, Heart and spirit, Social networking, Suburbia | 1 Comment »

Double-dip blogging

Posted by Ron Coleman on December 11, 2008

This item from LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION® has turned out to be such a hit that, on a not-so-bloggy day for me, I thought it would be appropriate to point LOS readers to my original, tax-deductible blog and suggest they look at it. And read it.

The post does have everything: Scientology, the free market, intellectual property, the Internet, “e-meters,” suntan lotion, an anti-religion-crusading blogger, and best of all — nothing about the Governor of Illinois!

Yeah, nothing!

Posted in Blogophilia, Narcissus Rex | 3 Comments »

Don’t blame the Netroots for democracy

Posted by Ron Coleman on December 10, 2008

Pajamas Media columnist M.P. MacConnell writes, regarding the “How the Netroots Brought Down Obama’s Spymaster.” (Via Glenn.) Get this:

Regardless of political affiliation, the “Netroots” (a term used to describe those whose political activism is primarily manifested online) are a mob, and as is normally the case in mob attacks, there are ringleaders. In this particular instance it was Glenn Greenwald, an attorney and contributing writer for Salon.com, who took it upon himself to lead those self-appointed champions of liberty in their quest to speed John Brennan’s downfall. Greenwald, who has no background in intelligence, law-enforcement, diplomacy, or international relations, felt himself to be in a position of supreme moral authority in questioning the fitness of Brennan – a 25 year veteran of government, intelligence, and counter-terrorism service – to assume the role President-elect Obama seemed to have him earmarked for.

I wasn’t too impressed, and wrote the following in the comments:

What an odd article. It starts out — well, I don’t know how it starts out; is there a missing topic sentence? — but at the beginning the complaint is, “Bad new media!” Then a quote from William Safire about money and megaphones. Does this mean that non-expert writers have had an effect on political and government decision-making prior to the advent of the Internet? Why, I think it does! In fact, while [Glenn] Greenwald is merely a lawyer, and not an expert on intelligence or the like, he is no worse credentialed than Horace Greeley, Carl Bernstein or Rush Limbaugh: Lay people with opinions, agendas and sometimes information that can affect public policy. The Internet has nothing to do with this.

Having said that, the remaining four-fifths of the article is a defense, on the merits, of Brennan. It may very well be a great defense of Brennan — I’m only a lawyer, not an intelligence expert! But it’s a non-sequitur as regards the first paragraphs, the title and the concluding paragraph.

Guess what, M.P.: Political decisions, or decisions by politicians regardless of merit, need to be supported, defended and sustained in political environments such as the media, online or off. If you haven’t gotten used to that, or if you don’t like it, why on earth do you write for Pajamas Media?

Posted in Blogophilia, Politics and Poker, Social networking | Leave a Comment »

Sing, you dirty bird! Sing!

Posted by Ron Coleman on December 10, 2008

I did! I did taw a putty tat!

Instapundit:

BLAGOJEVICH: “Vengeful and Profane.” Doesn’t sound like he’s going to get much support from the media, or fellow Democratic politicians.

Oh, but what “help” might he provide?

My first inclination was to think that perhaps we have here a new James Traficant! Defiant and all. But then I thought better of it, for if Mr. Fitzgerald the prosecutor has even half of what he claims he’s got on Blagojevich, the Illinois governor is very dead meat — but has far, far more to sell than Traficant ever did.

It seems likely that Blagojevich knows, well… everything about the seedy underside of Illinois politics. Everything.

Did that link say “vengeful”? This could be a very, very warm winter on the shores of Lake Michigan!

Posted in Lex scripta, Oppression, Politics and Poker | 2 Comments »