Play on through!

(Courtesy of every Zemblan patriot we know.)

UPDATE: Despite the President's bold example, Iraq vet Dan Nevins plans to keep on playing golf. (Courtesy of the Wounded Warrior Project. Read more, or make a donation, here.)

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We are great admirers of Sen. Russ Feingold, and although we found his L.A. Times op-ed on the subject of Mr. Bush's secret laws mostly admirable, we must take issue with one term he uses in the excerpt directly below. When the executive branch can ignore or emend the law of the land at whim, behind the backs of the electorate, the nation we inhabit cannot reasonably be called a "democracy":

It's a given in our democracy that laws should be a matter of public record. But the law in this country includes not just statutes and regulations, which the public can readily access. It also includes binding legal interpretations made by courts and the executive branch. These interpretations are increasingly being withheld from the public and Congress.

Perhaps the most notorious example is the recently released 2003 Justice Department memorandum on torture written by John Yoo. The memorandum was, for a nine-month period in 2003, the law that the administration followed when it came to matters of torture. And that law was essentially a declaration that the administration could ignore the laws passed by Congress . . . .

Another body of secret law involves the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). In 1978, Congress created the special FISA court to review the government's requests for wiretaps in intelligence investigations, which is -- and should be -- done behind closed doors. But with changes in technology and with this administration's efforts to expand its surveillance powers, the court today is doing more than just reviewing warrant applications. It is issuing important interpretations of FISA that have effectively made new law.

These interpretations deeply affect Americans' privacy rights, and yet Americans don't know about them because they are not allowed to see them. Very few members of Congress have been allowed to see them either. When the Senate recently approved some broad and controversial changes to FISA, almost none of the senators voting on the bill could know what the law currently is . . . .

No one questions the need for the government to protect information about intelligence sources and methods, troop movements or weapons systems. But there's a big difference between withholding information about military or intelligence operations from the public and withholding the law that governs the executive branch. Keeping the law secret doesn't enhance national security, but it does give the government free rein to operate without oversight or accountability . . . . Congress and the public shouldn't have to wonder whether the executive branch is following the laws that are on the books or some other, secret law.

The descent into tyranny is always a shorter one than we would like to imagine, shorter yet when ordinary citizens, through indifference, intimidation, or simple ignorance, acquiesce in the abrogation of their rights. That is why we must doff the imperial diadem to Zemblan patriot Brewster Kahle, inventor of WAIS, founder of Alexa Internet, and current director of the Internet Archive (which maintains and operates, among other worthy online projects, the Wayback Machine). We were shocked to learn, upon opening this morning's S.F. Chronicle, that Mr. Kahle has been embroiled in an ongoing contretemps with the FBI, and although he has never, in our presence, said a word about it, we are delighted to forgive him the oversight. He stood up, invoked the rule of law, and made the government blink:

Brewster Kahle, who runs an online library in San Francisco, was appalled when his volunteer lawyers told him in November that the FBI was demanding records of all communications with one of his patrons as part of an investigation of "international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities."

The FBI document, called a national security letter, told Kahle he could be prosecuted if he discussed the subject with anyone but his lawyers, and allowed him to speak with his attorneys only in person. Kahle said his Internet Archive, which has 500,000 card-holders, doesn't even keep the records the FBI was seeking.

He was allowed to speak publicly Wednesday under a rare settlement in which the FBI agreed to withdraw its letter and lift the gag order. That should show other librarians, and members of the public who receive any of the nearly 50,000 national security letters the government issues each year, that "you can push back on these," Kahle said.

National security letters are subpoenas issued by federal agencies to require businesses and other institutions to produce records of their customers. The agencies do not need court approval for the letters.

A 1986 law initially authorized their use against suspected spies, but the USA Patriot Act, passed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, allowed agents to seek records of anyone connected to a foreign terrorism or espionage investigation, even if the target is not a suspect.

The Bush administration has increasingly used the letters to sidestep a 1978 law requiring federal agents to get a warrant from a special court, in a secret session, to obtain similar records. A law passed in 2006 bars agents from issuing national security letters to libraries, with some exceptions, and requires regular audits by the Justice Department's inspector general, who has found thousands of cases of misuse of the letters.

A federal judge in New York ruled national security letters unconstitutional in September, saying the gag order violated free speech and interfered with judicial authority. The government has appealed.

The bad news: according to Mr. Kahle's lawyers, there are only two other cases in which a national security letter has been challenged in court. As EFF attorney Marcia Hoffman put it, "The big question is, How many other improper (letters) have been issued by the FBI and never challenged?"

(Feingold link courtesy of our goldarndest colleague Avedon Carol.)

UPDATE: From Wired.com we learn that, of the three known court challenges to an NSL, "all of [them] ended with the FBI rescinding the NSL . . . . The ACLU has successfully quashed two other NSLs, including one request to a library system asking for web surfing histories of patrons and another to a small New York hosting provider asking for data about a website it hosted. The Internet Archive case is only the second time the courts allowed the recipient of a Patriot Act National Security Letter to reveal his or her identity."

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There's good news and better news. The good news: after a huge win in North Carolina and a hairsbreadth loss in Indiana, Barack Obama is the presumptive Democratic nominee, and can finally turn his attention to November's general election. The better news: John McCain, who has had the Republican nomination sewn up for weeks now, failed to manage 80% support in either state primary, which means that almost two hundred thousand Republicans went to the polls simply to cast a protest vote against him:

In Indiana, McCain earned the backing of 78 percent of Republican primary voters, with exited candidates Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney gaining 10 percent and five percent respectively. Congressman Ron Paul, who is still in the race, has received seven percent of the vote.

The numbers were even worse in North Carolina, where McCain won 74 percent of the vote, with Huckabee earning 12 percent, Paul earning seven percent, and four percent of Republican primary goers simply voting "no preference."

None of these totals, to be sure, will affect the Arizona Republican's almost certain path to the nomination. But it has been more than two months now since McCain became the presumptive GOP candidate, and in each state election since he achieved that measure he has continued to lose a relatively substantial chunk of Republican support. In Pennsylvania, for example, McCain won 73 percent of the vote, with Paul pulling in 16 and Huckabee 11.

The troubling figures, however, may be the popular vote totals - individuals who McCain will theoretically have to woo back into his good graces. In North Carolina more than 105,000 Republicans did not vote for McCain. And in Indiana, 85,000 voters - whether they were Republican, Democrat or Independent - cast their ballots for someone other than the Arizona Republican.

UPDATE: Zemblans of a certain age may recall the 1976 presidential debate in which Gerald Ford made a complete fool of himself by asserting that Poland was "independent and autonomous" from the USSR. When pressed on the point, instead of relenting, he insisted that there was "no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe" -- an astonishing brainfart from which his campaign never recovered.

And McCain? Well, let's put it this way: he ain't gonna get any less senile.

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Via Zemblan patriot B.K.: From Dark Roasted Blend, an assortment of hideous playground sculptures, mostly from Russia and the Ukraine:

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Government programs that work must be watered down, undermined, or dismantled altogether, lest citizens draw the naive and dangerous conclusion that government programs can work. The personal account of veteran Patrick Campbell:

When I was sitting in a humvee in Baghdad two years ago, we had plenty of time to talk. While the conversations varied between musing about the morning's chow, the stifling heat or what type of truck we were going to buy when we got home, one theme remained constant. Everyone said they were going home to get that college degree that Uncle Sam promised us when we enlisted.

Last December, a year and a half late, I finally graduated. I still laugh when people ask me whether the military paid for my education. When I tell them how meager the actual education benefits are, their shock always make me feel like I just told a child that there is no such thing as the tooth fairy. Unfortunately, many of my battle buddies realized the hard way that the GI Bill isn't what it used to be. The education benefits for troops are so low that they either never enrolled, or dropped out of school because they couldn't handle working two part-time jobs or living back home on Mama's couch to afford to attend school.

My fellow veterans are struggling because the current GI Bill is woefully inadequate. Service members are forced to take out loans just to start classes, and then wait months to get any reimbursement. Even then, the benefit only covers 60 to 70 percent of the cost of a four-year public university. For expensive private schools, the GI Bill is barely a drop in the bucket. And every year, the GI Bill is losing value because education benefits have failed to keep up with the skyrocketing cost of education . . . .

Today, we are still reaping the benefits of one of the greatest social investment programs ever implemented. A 1988 congressional study proved that every dollar spent on educational benefits under the original GI Bill added $7 to the national economy in terms of productivity, consumer spending and tax revenue. Many of our leaders and luminaries took advantage of the GI Bill, including former Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, former Sen. Bob Dole, and authors Joseph Heller, Norman Mailer and Frank McCourt . . . .

For the hundreds of thousands of veterans returning with a mental health injury, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, earning a college degree will also create a safe space to readjust to civilian life. Since I have been back, there have been at least a few days when I was unable to attend class because something I saw in the news caused my mind to shoot right back into that cramped humvee. Thankfully, as a student, I had the luxury to take those days off and get the notes from a friend. Unfortunately, I know many veterans working full-time jobs who have had their jobs threatened because their bosses couldn't understand why that veteran needed a personal day.

A World War II-style GI Bill is more than just a social investment or an ethical obligation to our veterans; it's an important readiness tool. The GI Bill is the military's single most effective recruitment incentive; the No. 1 reason civilians join the military is to get money for college.

We have already seen the military double the number of GED waivers and increase the number of felonies allowable by a recruit. Enlistment bonuses have already climbed to $40,000 and could grow even higher. Instead of lowering standards and handing out big cash bonuses, why not keep the promise we made to our veterans, and help them get the education they have earned?

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Via Zemblan patriot J.D.: We'll bet you a pristine copy of Tales to Astonish #35 that the U.S. government has poured many billions of dollars into the creation of robotic spy bugs designed to perform the exact same tasks that ordinary insects used to do for free, as a personal favor to Dr. Henry Pym:

A swarm of robotic insects is being developed for the military to hunt down enemy fighters in buildings and caves, carry mini bombs and identify chemical, nuclear or biological weapons . . . .

They are to be fitted with cameras, as well as sensors to identify different types of weapons, and can be kitted out with a small payload of explosives . . . .
A particular sound may be the courting equivalent of, "Come over here, you sexy beast." But a tiny change can alter the message entirely, making it something akin to, "You're about to be torn to shreds if you don't get out of my territory."

So remember: if you should happen to find yourself, of a langourous summer's evening, stretched out on the back-porch glider with a bag of pork rinds and a Mickey's Wide Mouth discussing the virtues of socialism with Uncle Clem, think twice before you swat that pesky mosquito. You may be costing the American taxpayer millions -- and hindering our national security efforts in the process!

But it isn't just the bugs. From that now-remote morning when we first saw the men in dark suits at curbside, rummaging through our garbage, raccoon-like, in the first harsh light of dawn, we have always harbored a powerful suspicion that our beloved collection of Marvel Comics (consigned to the trashbin by our Sainted, if Short-Sighted, Maw) wound up not at the dump but at DARPA. That longstanding conviction was only reinforced by the article excerpted below, from the website of the Brookings Institute; it is entitled "How to Be All That You Can Be: A Look at the Pentagon’s Five Step Plan For Making Iron Man Real," and it comes to us through the kind agency of our BARBARian colleague Swopa, at Needlenose:

The home for much of the work on the new technologies of the Future Force Warrior system is the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at MIT. The program was started in 2002, with a $50 million grant from the Army, the largest ever grant in MIT’s history. Among the consortium working with MIT on the soldier systems are traditional defense firms like Raytheon to unexpected players like DuPont, the plastics company, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a leading research hospital of cancer and women’s health issues.

Without any sense of irony, the designers of this system say the ultimate plan of Future Force is to give soldiers near “super-powers.”[4] The system will come with many of the same components as the Land Warrior, just updated and sexed up. For example, while the gun in the old system was planned to be the venerable old M-16, the Future Force Warrior will carry a new “Weapon Subsystem,” that crosses a machine gun with a missile launcher. Most likely using the Metal Storm electrical system, it will shoot either bullets or tiny 15 mm explosive rockets. The advantage of the rockets is that they not only will be able to blow things up, but also are planned to have sensors that guide themselves at any designated target, raising every soldier to the level of an expert marksman. The weapon will also shoot an “electro-dart” that instead of exploding, stuns an enemy with an electrical shock . . . .

The sensors will also be a vast improvement. For example, instead of just regular night vision goggles and a video camera mounted on the rifle, the soldiers will be able have the enhanced MANTIS (Multi-spectral Adaptive Networked Tactical Imaging System) sight. Inspired by research into how insects “see” the world, MANTIS is a system which fuses together all the various images that different sensors (such as infrared light, thermal, etc.) detect into one single image. Individually, each of the sensors work well in some environment and poorly in others (infrared, for example, works great in low light, but terribly when there is smoke or dust; the reverse for thermal), but the combination into one gives the soldier the ability to see the world in multiple spectrums, much like the alien super-warrior in the movie Predator. MANTIS comes with a further twist. Each soldier’s helmet in the system is wirelessly linked to those of everyone else in their squad, "so that each person sees what every other person sees." The system also has “a TiVo-like record and playback capability” that allows the soldiers to rewind what they just saw and give anything that struck them as important an extra look . . . .

Much like Iron Man’s powered armor, future soldiers’ protections will also be computerized. The plan is for new body armor that, instead of Kevlar, is filled with nano-materials that are connected to a computer. It would normally be as flexible as regular uniform made of fabric. But, like how a crash-bag works inside a car, it would activate whenever the system detects a bullet strike and turn as hard as steel in an instant. Bullets would then bounce off the Future Force Warrior like those off of Superman’s chest.

This flexibility creates all sorts of other advantages. While traditional body armor can only take a limited number of strikes from a machine gun before the plate cracks, "When you have a uniform with this new nanotechnology, it can absorb unlimited numbers of machine-gun rounds," tells the Army’s soldier systems representative “Dutch” DeGay. The pliability could even be controlled. Gloves could turn into real-life brass knuckles, to give them a punch like Mike Tyson. Or, if the soldier gets hurt (such as from tripping on a rock while reading an email with their eyepiece), the uniform could go rigid to create a tourniquet or cast. The fabric could even be woven in with "nanomuscle fibers" that simulate real muscles, giving soldiers more an estimated “25 to 35 percent better lifting capability."[10]

The incorporation of electronics into the fabric also means that the armored uniform would not just be able to change shapes, but also may even change colors. Already, Fujitsu has made a computer screen that is made of fabric, while the E-Ink company has created ink that actually changes colors depending on its electronic charge. Incorporated into a uniform, such technology could create “chameleon” camouflage. The soldier’s uniform would be able to take the color of whatever is behind them or even form a rough holographic image like that in the movie Predator . . . .

But when it comes to actual development of real exoskeletons, the most influential of the science fiction visions comes from Robert Heinlein and his 1959 novel Starship Troopers.[13] Heinlein envisioned the infantry of the future as wearing technologic suits that make “You look like a big steel gorilla, armed with gorilla-sized weapons.” As the main character describes, “Our suits give us better eyes, better ears, stronger backs (to carry heavier weapons and more ammo), better legs, more intelligence (in the military meaning...), more firepower, greater endurance, less vulnerability… A suit isn't a space suit - although it can serve as one. It is not primarily armor - although the Knights of the Round Table were not armored as well as we are. It isn't a tank - but a single M.I. [Mobile Infantry] private could take on a squadron of those things and knock them off unassisted.” The book is so popular among military readers, that it is on almost all the various military professional reading lists and DARPA even footnoted it in a research proposal on turning Heinlein’s vision into reality.

We would not be a bit surprised if the men from DARPA also found Starship Troopers in our garbage, although this time around Maw is not to blame: we tossed it there ourselves, scarcely imagining the influence it would later have on future generations of lavishly-funded Imagineers. Nor did we foresee that our discarded paperback edition of Farnham's Freehold would provide the model for decades of Republican social policy.

We can, however, state with authority that we did not, inadvertently or otherwise, expose any impressionable minds to the outlandish sci-fi visions of Miss Ayn Rand. Our copy of Atlas Shrugged went straight to the imperial outhouse, where it grew shorter by a chapter or so each day until only the dust jacket remained.

SIDEBAR: Reading the Brookings article leads us to wonder whether certain Republican candidates might have been exposed to unhealthy levels of gamma radiation:

Is he man, or monster? Or . . . is he both? All we can say for sure is that we wouldn't like him when he's angry. And he's always angry.

UPDATE (courtesy of Zemblan patriot T.H.): Engadget has posted BAE's in-house animation of robo-bugs in action. Rock out, li'l robo-bugs!



UPDATE II: Is no one safe? Now we learn that even tiny woodland creatures are being spied upon by robotic simulacra of squirrels, lizards, even -- say it ain't so! -- cock-a-roaches:

Named Rocky after the cartoon character, the robo-squirrel is working its way into Hampshire's live-squirrel clique, controlled by researchers several yards away with a laptop computer and binoculars.

Sarah Partan, an assistant professor in animal behavior at Hampshire, hopes that by capturing a close-up view of squirrels in nature, Rocky will help her team decode squirrels' communication techniques, social cues and survival instincts.

Rocky is among many robotic critters worldwide helping researchers observe animals in their natural environments rather than in labs. The research could let scientists better understand how animals work in groups, court, intimidate rivals and warn allies of danger.

In Indiana, for instance, a fake lizard shows off its machismo as researchers assess which actions intimidate and which attract real lizards. Pheromone-soaked cockroach counterfeits in Brussels, meanwhile, exert peer pressure on real roaches to move out of protective darkness. In California, a tiny video camera inside a fake female sage grouse records close-up details as it's wooed - and more - by the breed's unusually promiscuous males . . . .

A particular sound may be the courting equivalent of, "Come over here, you sexy beast." But a tiny change can alter the message entirely, making it something akin to, "You're about to be torn to shreds if you don't get out of my territory."

"There's been the old, classic trade-off for years between the ecological relevance you get (researching) in the field, versus those studies in the lab where you can control the environment while knowing they're not going to react as much," [IU researcher Greg] Demas said. "Having these models out in the field is taking us to the next steps of the research."

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It's from a handicapper that's real sincere (namely Zemblan patriot J.M.):

The filly Eight Belles finished second behind favourite Big Brown in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, then collapsed with two broken front ankles and was euthanized after crossing the wire.

The field of 20 horses was galloping out around the first turn at Churchill Downs when Eight Belles suddenly went down on both front legs and jockey Gabriel Saez slid off.

"When we passed the wire I stood up," said Saez, a first-time Derby rider. "She started galloping funny. I tried to pull her up. That's when she went down."

An equine ambulance reached her on the track and put down the filly.

"There was no possible way to save her," on-call veterinarian Dr. Larry Bramlage said. "She broke both front ankles. That's a bad injury."

Trainer Larry Jones and owner Rick Porter decided to run Eight Belles against the boys in America's greatest race despite her never having done so before.

Omen?

We are insuffiently skilled in the dark art of augury to offer a definitive explication of today's events, but we do hope the Democratic leadership had a qualified haruspex on hand to read the late filly's entrails:

Democrat Hillary Clinton has revealed her favorite for the 134th running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 3rd.

The presidential hopeful urged a group of her supporters in Louisville Thursday to put their money on the filly, Eight Belles.

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We thought we had stopped these devils at the Zemblan border, but despite our best efforts it seems a few of them managed to slip through:

Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure . . . .

"I'm tempted to say it's one huge joke," [police chief Jean-Dieudonne] Oleko said.

"But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, 'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it'," he said.

Oh, they know, m'sieu. Believe us. They know.

(Link via our occasionally indecorous colleague Susie Madrak of Suburban Raunch Queen, whose site we usually visit for the political commentary. No, really.)

SIDEBAR (courtesy of our equally indecorous colleague Badtux the Snarky Penguin): Even if they did steal your penis, socks-in-the-basket is not the answer:

A Hamilton man Tasered by police is in hospital after the stun gun ignited a "flammable object" in his pants, burning him . . . .

"Three officers went there in response to a disturbance call," said SIU spokesman Frank Phillips yesterday. "During the interaction, an officer discharged his Taser. A flammable object the man had in the waistband of his pants ignited."

The man, 31, was burned on his hand and thigh. He was taken to Hamilton General Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

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In heartening news, two senators have called for the resignation of Dr. Ira Katz, the VA official who conspired to suppress information about the epidemic of suicide among veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. That information emerged in a pro bono lawsuit brought by attorney Gordon Erspamer, the subject this morning of an S.F. Chronicle profile that includes the following jawdropper of a quote:

"If you add up the veterans' suicides among those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and compare it to the total combat deaths, the veteran suicides are higher," says Erspamer, who introduced a VA e-mail at the trial that showed an average of 18 vets a day are committing suicide. "The VA doesn't want that out" . . . .

His father, Ernest, was one of the "atomic veterans" exposed to large doses of radiation during bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in 1946. When his father developed incurable leukemia 33 years later, Erspamer, a year out of the University of Michigan law school, was frustrated at the lack of governmental support for veterans.

"My dad said, 'I don't want to spend the last year of my life fighting the VA,' " Erspamer says. "So I carried it on for him."

His father died in 1980, but it took 10 years for Erspamer to manage to get disability and death benefits from the VA.

"We won $90,000," he says. "And to tell you the truth, I probably spent $200,000 of time working on the case" . . . .

Erspamer has high hopes for this case, although he expects that it may take five or six years to work its way through the courts. A win would mean, at least in theory, a quicker response to claims and more rights to appeal for veterans, although Erspamer puts it more succinctly.

"It would mean that you can't treat them like crap, to be blunt," he says.

SIDEBAR: The MIT Technology Review has now posted Part II of Emily Singer's article "Brain Trauma in Iraq":

Scientists have preliminary evidence that forces unique to blasts can damage the brain directly, independent of any blunt injuries that the blast might also cause. The key questions, however, remain unanswered. Which aspects of the blast do the most damage? How can the military better protect its personnel? And perhaps most important for legions of soldiers on patrol, can repeated exposure to weak blasts lead to long-­lasting brain damage?

The prognosis for soldiers returning home with symptoms of brain damage is not encouraging. Decades of research into ­civilian head trauma have come to very little; treatments that seemed promising in animal models have turned out to be ineffective in human tests. "It's a completely untapped area of medical development," says trauma surgeon Jon Bowersox. While the military is testing a handful of existing drugs, there's a "time mismatch" when it comes to developing new treatments specifically for traumatic brain injury, Bowersox observes. "The military is interested in developing products they can have out during the current war," he says. "They are not used to the fact that medical development has a longer time line."

If you missed it earlier this week, part I is here.

UPDATE (via our stalwart colleague the Fixer at Alternate Brain): Just so's you'll know: while Iraq vets are begging for scraps, the Navy pays John McCain -- whose wife is reportedly worth something in excess of $100 million -- an annual "disability pension" of $58,358 that is 100% tax-exempt. Asks commenter Pansypoo: "Do I see a WELFARE QUEEN?"

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The resignation of Adm. William Fallon as commander of CentCom and his imminent replacement by surgemeister David Petraeus have removed one large impediment to Dick Cheney's sinister designs on Iran -- but don't pop the champagne, or the bomb-bay doors, just yet. Our indefatigable colleague Scott Horton has caught wind of a rumor so wacky it might be true:

Over at the American Conservative magazine’s blog, Antiwar.com columnist and former CIA officer Philip Giraldi reports that Israeli sources have indicated to him that the recent leak to the FBI about the new-old Israeli spy case came from inside the Israeli government toward the end of thwarting Ehud Olmert, Dick Cheney and the War Party’s plans to expand the Middle Eastern slaughter to Iran – and that there are more spies to be revealed.

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