Fun with the Constitution

Article I, Section 6
... No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time...

SoS salary has increased during Sen. Clinton's current term. Can she serve as SoS?

This oughta be fun!

Nicholas Eymerich, revisited

Previous posts have introduced readers to

Nicholas Eymerich, inquisitor general of the Inquisition of the Crown of Aragon; 1357-1360, 1366(?)-1381(?):

He was the first inquisitor to get around the Church's prohibition against torturing a subject twice by interpreting directive very liberally, permitting a separate instance of torture for a separate charge of heresy.
[Wikipedia entry, Nicholas Eymerich]

After many years as Inquisitor General, he finally concluded that,

"Quaestiones sunt fallaces et inefficaces."
["Torture is deceptive and ineffectual."]

Today?

I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq
By Matthew Alexander
Sunday, November 30, 2008
WaPo op-ed
"... Torture and abuse are against my moral fabric. The cliche still bears repeating: Such outrages are inconsistent with American principles. And then there's the pragmatic side: Torture and abuse cost American lives.

I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The large majority of suicide bombings in Iraq are still carried out by these foreigners. They are also involved in most of the attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me -- unless you don't count American soldiers as Americans."

Torture does NOT work.

A lesson learned by a Spanish Inquisitor in the 14th-century bears repeating today:

"Quaestiones sunt fallaces et inefficaces."
["Torture is deceptive and ineffectual."]

why words matter

Feeling under the weather, you visit your doctor.
Your doctor diagnoses "flu", and treats you accordingly.
In fact, you have bubonic plague.
You die.

Recall, Rummy explicitly refused to call the Iraq insurgency an "insurgency".
The result?
We mounted no effective counter-insurgency campaign.
The insurgents took over Iraq.

Today? From Think Progress:

White House Still Won’t Use The Word ‘Recession,’ Press Corps Doesn’t Seem To Notice

Does it matter that WH refuses to use the word "recession"?

As suggested by preceding comments, I believe it does.
If you do not correctly diagnose the illness, you are unlikely to prescribe an effective treatment.
[I note that the conservatives are still characterizing the current mess as a financial problem resulting in a credit freeze.
... and this continues to have policy implications: the Fed & Treasury continue to pursue treatment protocol that seems very heavily weighted towards injecting $$$ into financial sector.
So far it hasn't worked.]

Stop the madness.

Headline humor (?)

2 US soldiers probed for Afghan prisoner abuse

"Probed"???

Does anyone else find this word choice both appropriate and... funny?

Other noted this first

I think Rachel Maddow is the person who first noted this:

Prez-elect Obama delivered an economy-related press conference Mon-Wed last week.

Each day the market shot up.

Meanwhile, whenever W or his minions addressed the economy, the market tanked.

The predictive value of this observation continued on Monday.

Paulson held a press conference, promising, "We are actively engaged in developing additional programs to strengthen our financial system so that lending flows into our economy."

As predicted, the market tanked!

Day-trading based on who's holding an economy-related press conference (W/minions vs Obama) could be profitable.

Sing a song.

Next time someone complains about U.S. "activist judges"...

Court ruling brings down Thai government
By AMBIKA AHUJA, Associated Press Writer
2 Dec 2008
BANGKOK, Thailand – A court dissolved Thailand's top three ruling parties for electoral fraud Tuesday and temporarily banned the prime minister from politics, bringing down a government that has faced months of strident protests seeking its ouster.

Wow!

note: I'm not sanguine about Roberts, Alito, Scalia, et al., upholding convictions of W and his enablers.

Have a nice day.

Blast from the past

W's radio address, 29 Dec 2007:

"One of our greatest blessings as Americans is that we live in a country with a growing economy -- where people can pursue their dreams, turn ideas into enterprises, and provide for their families. It is a measure of our economy's resilience that even with high oil prices and softness in the housing market, we're still growing. In November, our economy added jobs for the 51st straight month, making this the longest period of uninterrupted job growth on record. Unemployment is a low 4.7 percent. Exports are up. And the fundamentals of our economy are strong."
[President's Radio Address]

And today?

US in recession since December 2007: official panel
by Rob Lever Rob Lever
Mon Dec 1, 2008
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A US recession began in December 2007, a panel of economists charged with the official designation of business cycles said Monday.

Yep - W's on top of it!

Have a nice day.