Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks, and a co-defendent were up to their usual antics at the Guantanamo Bay military tribunal. Last time they were just looking to grandstand.

Now the tribunal has obliged them. After denying a joint motion by the prosecution and the defense to put off the hearing until after the inauguration (dammit, I just can't get away from that), the military judge got an earful this morning:

Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed architect of the terrorist attacks, casually admitted guilt during a series of outbursts as the translators struggled to keep up and the judge repeatedly sought to regain control.

"We did what we did; we're proud of Sept. 11," Binalshibh announced at one point in proceedings that dealt with a number of legal issues, including whether he is mentally competent to stand trial on charges that carry a potential death sentence.

Mohammed, who is representing himself, switched back and forth between Arabic and English, insisting at one point that a uniformed military lawyer assigned to assist him be removed from his defense table. The man, he said, represents the "people who tortured me," he said.

Mohammed shrugged off the potential death sentence he faces for charges that include the murder of nearly 3,000 people in the Sept. 11 attacks.

"We don't care about capital punishment," he said. "We are doing jihad for the cause of God."

Mohammed has been trying to hasten his "martyrdom" since his transfer to Guantanamo Bay. There is a great deal of speculation that the Obama Administration will put an immediate stop to the military commissions. Of course, he was also going to immediately close Guantanamo Bay, but that promise is now all over the map, with some aides saying he'll do it in the first week, others saying in the first hundred days, and Obama himself saying he might not get to it in his first term.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:59 AM | Comments (23)
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Evidence A: Whitebread actor Joachin Phoenix raps.

Two thirds of blacks now say it has been fulfilled (up from one third just a year ago), but whites are more skeptical.

That two thirds is not going to hold up. This is a point of near ecstasy for many blacks (pick your meaning, spiritual or sexual or both), and once this is digested as "normal" -- i.e., once Obama is in office for a few months -- a lot of this artificial optimism will dissipate and we'll be left with a nice but not huge bump to that number. Instead of two thirds saying the dream's been fulfilled, say, 40% will say so.

Ed Morrissey wonders why whites are so much more skeptical of the "dream" being made manifest than blacks. He figures it's that whites feel they cannot judge this, that it's up to blacks, and so are reserved about saying so.

I think that's partly it, but there's something more. One of the greatest impediments to black progress is not white racism but an oppositional black culture which denigrates many successful habits and aspirations of whites as "inauthentic" and "tools of the white man," in favor of a we-ourselves system that seems chiefly based upon a negation of "white values." Alas, this system doesn't work. It has not worked for 30 years and there is no data suggesting it's about to turn the corner.

Further, there are other models of demonstrated success to emulate -- the Asians', the Jews' -- and yet these too seem rejected as either "white-derived" or also inauthentic and not uniquely black enough.

An even greater impediment to black success is racism, but not racism itself -- the psychological conceit that all that's bad that happens in life is due to racism, and the conclusion this suggests, that there is no point striving "by the rules" in a game stacked against you if you're doomed to fail. With all due respect to blacks nurturing this psychological conceit -- 90% of the reason that bad things happen in life is that that's just what happens in life.

Didn't get a promotion? Usually not racism; just life.

Not making as much money as you think you deserve? Just life. Join the club.

Etc.

If this were merely a psychological construct it would have no great impact, apart from political expressions and perpetually voting for awful grievance-mongering candidates. But it has a much more insidious effect than that -- many blacks believe that there is no hope whatsoever of advancement in the "White Power Structure," and therefore do not bother to try. Michelle Obama herself claims that as a black woman she's had to work twice as hard to get half as far, despite the fact that she does not seem to have worked particularly hard and yet has gone pretty damn far. And if even Michelle Obama, making $300,000 for a make-work political-favor blow-off cush sinecure non-job, is telling you it's well-nigh hopeless, well then. I guess it's well-nigh hopeless.

So if whites are more skeptical, it's because we are not nearly as gripped by Obamania as many blacks are (well, except for whites in the media), and we kinda-sorta know that after Obama is elected, life is still going to be unfair, filled with disappointments, slights, and setbacks. Just because that's the way life often is. And we know too that after the ecstasy of the ascent of The One fades, blacks are going to continue to reject proven models for success in favor of demonstrably failed "uniquely black" models for such, and that blacks will advance very modestly, and those who don't advance will reassert anew that this is a hopelessly racist country built upon the backs of slaves and the continued repression of their descendants.

The election of a president does not change the basic facts that life is hard and that the best (and in most cases, only) avenue to social and economic advancement is the championing of education and striving in school, rather than denigrating that as inauthentic and as "acting white." (Or as "acting Asian" or "acting Hebraic.")

For Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream to be realized, it requires not just whites to move past racism -- but for blacks to move past it as well.

Posted by: Ace at 08:50 AM | Comments (92)
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Lawyer Stanislav Markelov was shot and killed in Moscow by a man using a pistol and silencer. Two companions, including a journalist for the anti-Putin newspaper Novaya Gazeta, were also shot.

Markelov was one of Russia's best known human rights lawyers. He had represented the family of an 18-year-old Chechen woman who was savagely raped and murdered in 2000 by a former Russian army colonel.

Yuri Budanov snatched Kheda Kungayeva from her father's house during a late-night raid in 2000, killed her inside his tent, and then ordered his subordinates to secretly bury her body. He was convicted of murder in 2003 – despite claiming he had gone temporarily insane at the time of her killing and had mistaken her for a sniper.

A judge sentenced Budanov to 10 years imprisonment, but he was released by another court last week. Markelov made a fruitless last-minute appeal of the decision and was just coming out of a press conference when he was killed.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:35 AM | Comments (30)
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My disgust for my fellow citizens knows no bounds:

"We have been absolutely swamped since the election with people desiring rejuvenation procedures for the upcoming inauguration," says Washington, D.C., cosmetic dermatologist Tina Alster.

"My normal load for cosmetic procedures has doubled, except for hyaluronic acid fillers — Perlane and Restylane — which have almost tripled," reports cosmetic and laser surgeon Hema Sundaram, who runs two offices in the Washington, D.C., area.

"My motivation is to look the very best I can for such a historical event. I've flown in to D.C. from California for this," says Lynch, who will attend the swearing-in ceremony as well as a black-tie ball with her husband.

Lynch says she stopped by Sundaram's office this weekend for cosmetic treatment, which included Botox and hyaluronic acid fillers.

I have no idea what a hyaluronic acid filler is. I do know that they should come with a lecture on frivolity.

Seriously guys, I'm looking for news that doesn't involve the inauguration, but there's not much out there. Gonna try the foreign papers next.

Late-breaking Update: DON'T THEY KNOW WE'RE ON THE BRINK OF A SECOND GREAT DEPRESSION?!?!

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:20 AM | Comments (72)
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Hurray, a holiday. Back to bed.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:38 AM | Comments (94)
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A medieval way to die for a bunch of medieval barbarians. Sounds about right.

At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages.

...The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East.

It trains Muslim fighters to kill British and US troops.

Now al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague has been passed to other terror cells — or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

...The extremists supporting madman Osama bin Laden went to Bejaia and Jijel provinces — hoping the plague did not go with them.

A source said: “The emirs (leaders) fear surviving terrorists will surrender to escape a horrible death.”

AQLIM boss Droudkal claims to command around 1,000 insurgents. Training camps are also based in Morocco, Tunisia and Nigeria.

One can hope this is a naturally occurring outbreak and not some sort of attempt to create a bio-weapon (even one as simple as sending infected member abroad) gone wrong.

Thanks to Mrs. Dang in the AFC thread for the heads up.

Of course when I hear plague, this is the first thing I think of... more...

Posted by: DrewM at 04:54 PM | Comments (230)
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Ravens at the Steelers.

Worst part of the Cardinals going to the Super Bowl? It probably makes John McCain happy.
more...

Posted by: DrewM at 02:44 PM | Comments (238)
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Fox News Sunday says she's open to the idea of prosecuting Bush administration officials.

"I think you look at each item and see what is a violation of the law and do we even have a right to ignore it," the California Democrat said. "And other things that are maybe time that is spent better looking to the future rather than to the past."

Last week when DrewM. posted something about the awfulest torture-y mistreatment of sociopathic jihadi Mohammed al-Qahtani, I mentioned something along the lines of "more grease for the prosecute Bush for war crimes" skid.

Today Pelosi tentatively put her "high road" endorsement on the nonsensical ravings of jerks like John Conyers, who's been beating this drum for a while now.

She whitewashes the political payback aspect, saying "hey, the law might compel us". Rubbish.

They have all the cards. All. The. Cards. I'm just spitballin here, taking a look at the ol crystal balls, but I'll bet you my next paycheck there will be more recriminations, investigations, and special prosecutors.

And lots of pretense. Obama will float above the fray. Because Hope and Change doesn't sully itself in political revenge.

"I don't believe that anybody is above the law," he [Obama] told ABC News a week ago. "On the other hand, I also have a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards."

We simply cannot have this victory. Not when the Democrats staked so much on losing, and lost the bet. They have no intention of losing the argument. Instead they demand the house invalidate the spin of the wheel, and redo with new odds. They weighed "it wasn't worth the cost", realized that was a losing argument, and instead chose the "crimes were committed in the execution of this flawed policy" path. They will do everything they can to make certain the Iraq war is bathed in shame and self-loathing.

It's what they do. And while I hate to say so, they're pretty fucking good at it.

A little update, MDH3 asks:

5 WTF. I mean, seriously. What the hell do these fuckers want? They won the election. Will they not be satisfied until they completely trash this man and those who work for him?
Posted by: MDH3 at January 18, 2009 06:21 PM (hHSMt)

No. They will not be satisfied until they completely trash Bush, and the war. And conservatism.

Honestly, I don't think even that will satisfy them. It'll keep them sedated for a bit. That's all.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 02:12 PM | Comments (231)
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And by Republicans, I mean Democrats and Barack Obama specifically.

For $2.5 million, HBO purchased the rights to air Sunday's all-star kickoff concert at the Lincoln Memorial, which Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden will attend. The concert, featuring the musical stylings of Beyoncé, U2, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder, among others, will be available on television only to those who receive HBO and to households that receive digital cable. In the Washington area, between 60 and 75 percent of cable subscribers will be able to see the concert on cable systems owned by Comcast and Cox Communications.

Sure some people find this unseemly but putting on the most expensive inaugural in history is hard and the corporate partners don't exactly grow on trees in these tough times.

In addition to so-called "A-list" talent, the event also will include speeches by the President Elect and Vice-President Elect. No word on whether their remarks will include product placements.

The last time a cushy corporate deal like this was struck for an event at the Lincoln Memorial? Why it was 1993 and the Clinton Inaugural. Funny how that works, isn't it.

Must be more of the Hope and Change I've heard so much about.

Posted by: DrewM at 11:24 AM | Comments (70)
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Thanks to Pocono Joe for the jpg.

Posted by: Ace at 11:18 AM | Comments (75)
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