There's a good reason why the heads of organized criminal enterprises are typically charged with and convicted on tax evasion charges, rather the murders and extortions and corruption they supervise.  Our legal system is not only set up to deal with events after they occur, but is generally focused on the individuals who actually carry out an act.  And then, to complicate matters even more, the criminal law presumes that the perpetrator of an act derived or meant to derive some personal benefit.  Following orders to avoid dire consequences for oneself can, in the event of a successful prosecution, serve to mitigate the perpetrators guilt.  Which is why we have that revolving door conservatives complain about so much.

People on the internet are no different from others in jumping to the conclusion that when they consider something offensive, it was intended to offend them.  So, for example, there's considerable outrage over the little video, attributed to the McCain campaign, which insinuates that the Democratic presumptive nominee for President of the United States is arrogant, while the Republican presumptive nominee presumes to know for a fact that the Obama campaign is playing the "race card."  Many who have seen the video have been inclined to conclude that making sport of their candidate is designed to somehow dampen their interest and support.

But what if it's not?  What if, what is often identified as a Rovian tactic, actually plays to the Republican base and whoever else is inclined to feel resentment?

Just because it's good to know what's being discussed, have a look at the video over the fold.

So, I ran across a story the other day about the Governor of New Mexico inking four agreements with the United States Air Force promoting "green energy." Since I'd earlier found reports about the Air Force looking at building nuclear energy plants on bases and, considering that the Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, has a long history, since his tenure as Secretary of Energy, of promoting nuclear, I had to check this newest endeavor out.  But, lo and behold, no nukes.  But everything else:

Not me.  I think assassinating people by remote control is both unethical and cowardly.  Apparently, some of the leaders of our Air Force aren't too comfortable with that they've been doing, either.

Air Force officer in Alaska dies in likely suicide

By DAN JOLING –

ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska (AP) — The officer who commands an air force wing in Alaska has died of a gunshot wound that likely was self-inflicted, authorities said Monday.
....
Tinsley was named base commander in May 2007. He had served as an F-15 instructor pilot, F-15C test pilot, wing weapons officer, exchange officer and instructor with the Royal Australian Air Force.

His previous 22-month assignment was executive officer to the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. T. Michael "Buzz" Mosely, who resigned in June under pressure in an agency shake-up.
....
Walberg said Tinsley was not under investigation or undue stress.

Actions speak louder than words.

Ronald Brownstein, writing in the National Journal (subscription required) while Barack Obama was still out of the country, proved quite prescient when he opined:

All that is left for Obama is to enjoy cheering crowds during his trip's quick European leg, which began with his Thursday speech in Berlin. Yet that very adoration--which is reflected in polls showing that the European public vastly prefers him to McCain--may represent the trip's sole remaining political danger for the Democrat. U.S. conservatives are poised to argue that Obama's popularity with audiences abroad ought to raise doubts among Americans at home.

And he cites the precedent of candidate John Kerry being skewered in 2004 for his claimed support from foreign leaders--and for being French, though Brownstein doesn't refer to that at this point.

John McCain is a small, petty man who takes comfort in other people's distress.  How do I know that?  It's what I oberved during his so-called "Town Hall" at the Rochester, New Hampshire Opera House this week.

Doing something because somebody else is doing it, not doing it, planning to do it or even failing to do it, is a juvenile way to behave--a sign that the person is unsure of what is wanted, undecided and fearful of making a mistake.  I think of such people as "I'll have what you're having" friends, slightly annoying but predictable.  At least, one can calculate how much lunch is going to cost ahead of time.

But, I would have changed the title from "Self-serve and slave" to "Self-service and voluntary servitude" to make the construction more parallel and invoke the historical context.  We assume that to slave is to work without compensation, but not only is the involuntary nature of the historical practice of slavery crucial, it's the subordination of one person to another that's determinative.  Indeed, I would argue that we are confronting a twenty-first century variant of an old agenda--to make a significant percentage of the population carry out the dictates of the few, without compensation.

Derrick Jackson offers the following in today's Boston Globe.

Fencing out fields of dreams
By Derrick Z. Jackson
July 15, 2008

SO MUCH for romantic visions of families bicycling together, with little Johnny and Jamila wobbling on training wheels. So much for teens who actually disconnect from Facebook for facetime, community cleanup, and - good heavens - exercise.

No, no, no. Some people are so divorced from society that they see this as almost evil.

While it is being bruited about that the Administration is planning for a somewhat earlier withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq, if Secretary Gates is counting on protecting the bases with robots and drones, he might want to think again.

In any event, the United States Air Force is demonstrating lots of enterprise.

As someone who's just returned from a cross-country rail treck from New Hampshire to New Mexico and back, I can tell you that there are a bunch of things we need more than new air bases and fighter planes being taken on European jaunts.  For starters, how about some more track so freigh trains aren't held up by passenger trains and passenger trains aren't shunted aside to let the freight get by.  And how about some over-passes for farm roads so the train whistles don't have to rend the country-side day and night with their caterwauling as they roll by?  Never mind robbing the passengers of their sleep.

Somewhere in western Kansas, as we were about to reach Colorado and the train started its climb to about 6680 feet near Raton, New Mexico, I stopped making notes.  After all, we assumed the freight traffic had been left behind and the Southwest Chief would be able to "fly" to make up some of the four hours we were behind.

It was not to be.  It turned out that two engines were not enough to pull twelve cars over the mountains at speed and overheated so that they had to be shut down and cooled on a siding.  This also meant that there was no electricity for anything on the train and a lap-top with an erratic battery was out of commission.  

While I don't subscribe to the characterization of political candidates as opponents or contestants, like gladiators in the Roman arena, there's little question that many of the promoters and financial supporters of candidates are basically antagonistic to the interests of the general public the candidates are proposing to serve.

So, as a progressive Democrat, I'm not at all reluctant to consider the Republican proponents of authoritarian, patriarchal dictatorship as my enemies.  Moreover, since a significant number of the American people have awakened to the fact that, instead of having their modest expectations and patriotic values honored, the people they elected to represent and serve them have engaged in the grossest deceptions and dishonored the country, it's clear that there's a small class of people who now have a lot to lose.  It would be a mistake to think they will give up power easily.

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition

SPENGLER, writing for the Asia Times in June of 2004 opined
No one expects the Spanish Inquisition

For serious devotees of torture, Washington's embarrassment about Abu Ghraib paled beside the Vatican's defense last week of the Spanish Inquisition. It turns out, reported church officials at a June 15 press conference, that the Spanish Inquisition burnt at the stake less than 1% of the 125,000 accused heretics brought before it. On the strength of this statistic they qualified Pope John Paul II's previous apology for the Inquisition. "A request for forgiveness can only refer to facts that are true and objectively recognized. One does not ask forgiveness for some impressions widely held by public opinion, which contain more myth than reality," said Cardinal Georges Cottier.

Catholic publicists in possession of these data have been campaigning to rescue the Inquisition's good name from the besmirchment of Protestant propaganda. Wrote Prof Thomas F Madden of St Louis University in October 2003: "The Spanish people loved their Inquisition. That is why it lasted for so long."

It seems that what we now consider corrupt, the doling out of public resources and assets to special interests and supporters, was actually the norm until some time after the Second World War, when the responsibilities of public officials, especially our Representative in Congress, to actually serve the public interest were re-enforced by a series of civil rights laws and accountability measures.
So, in a sense, we're not far removed from the establishment of popular rule and the realization of public servants who actually serve the public.  Which probably accounts, in large part, for the persistence of the old pattern of Congress allocating funds on the basis of political considerations and their continued inability to get annual appropriations done on time.

What I wanted to write about this morning was how history has fairly definitively demonstrated that the privatization of the delivery of public goods and services has failed the ostensible purpose of improving quality at a lower cost.

But then, a quick tour through the latest news about the United States Air Force led to a considerable detour.  For, while Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is making speeches about all our military services being more open to civilian critique, some people seem to have gotten the wrong message from his recent efforts.

The latest set-back for the Bush Administration is entitled Boumediene v. Bush and, IMHO, the conservatives are quite correct in being really upset.  Because Justice Kennedy has finally made his point that the Constitution is a limiting document, designed to define and restrict the behavior of the agents of government in exchange for their having been granted the power to use force.  As one of the commenters on the  News Hour pointed out, the implication of the decision reaches much further than the prison on Guantanamo.  In establishing that the Constitution follows the flag, it will affect U.S. government actions all around the globe.

Do not look for any links in this diary.  It is entirely speculative on my part.  However, if correct, it would explain a number of things.