A Craig’s List poster offers some rules for racist etiquette: 

1. Preface your post by saying "this is just something I noticed in all Jews/Hispanics/Blacks/Asians". I mean, if its just an observation, it can't be racist.
2. Preface your post by saying how you have plenty of Jewish/Hispanic/Black/Asian friends, but you need to let this off your chest.
3. Before making a blatantly racist statement, CLEARLY state that you are not a racist. This absolves you.
4. Make sure you insult that particular race's women. Do they have big butts? Hooked noses? Greasy hair? Let them know! After all, its just something you noticed.
5. ALWAYS quote statistics. Did the Vatican research board determine that 98.7% of all homosexuals are condemned to hell for all eternity? Cite it. Did a Klan survey find that Jews are 78% more likely to be cheap and smelly? Copy and paste baby!
6. Don't forget to insult that race's homeland, even if most of them have never been there. Latin America/the Middle East/Asia/Africa sure does suck, and its YOUR responsibility to let people know anonymously through the internet.
7. Be sure to describe, in detail, an incident you saw/heard about/made up in which a member of an ethnic group lived up to their stereotype. Every academic thesis needs field research before it gets published.
8. USE CAPS AND EXCLAMATION POINTS TO MAKE IT SEEM AS THOUGH YOU'RE SCREAMING!!!!!
9. Anyone who disagrees with you is obviously a limp-wristed tree-hugging liberal, and their opinion is automatically discounted.

**IMPORTANT** Under no circumstances should you check your spelling or grammar. 

This reminds me of the joke: Q. What’s the beginning of every racist joke?  A. Turning around and making sure nobody else is listening.

President admits to being a war criminal and tries to pardon himself:

Welcome to Team B, part, er … B:

If the Democrats won on November 7th, the Vice-President said, that victory would not stop the Administration from pursuing a military option with Iran. The White House would put “shorteners” on any legislative restrictions, Cheney said, and thus stop Congress from getting in its way.

The White House’s concern was not that the Democrats would cut off funds for the war in Iraq but that future legislation would prohibit it from financing operations targeted at overthrowing or destabilizing the Iranian government, to keep it from getting the bomb. “They’re afraid that Congress is going to vote a binding resolution to stop a hit on Iran, à la Nicaragua in the Contra war,” a former senior intelligence official told me.

Hersch, who has been remarkably prescient on the administration’s Iran policy thus far, has noted that BushCo’s push to invade Iran has been in direct contrast with CIA reports assessing no credible threat from Tehran.

Cheney is emphatic about Iraq. In late October, he told Time, “I know what the President thinks,” about Iraq. “I know what I think. And we’re not looking for an exit strategy. We’re looking for victory.” He is equally clear that the Administration would, if necessary, use force against Iran. “The United States is keeping all options on the table in addressing the irresponsible conduct of the regime,” he told an Israeli lobbying group early this year. “And we join other nations in sending that regime a clear message: we will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

But of course, this administration has never let a little thing like facts get in the way of pursuing their regional ambitions. The latest? Regime change in Iran is critical to ensure victory in Iraq. But not to worry, the administration is leaving all options on the table. Where have we heard that before?

The political party formed by Lieberman after his primary loss to Ned Lamont has a new chairman whose first act was to release a statement criticizing Lieberman! 

More in the continuing obsession with phallic toys for children – aptly named boingboing in the Amazon link! 

Indonesians displaying remarkable maturity in directing their aggression at the source. 

As the UCLA campus erupts in protest, the acting Chancellor issues a cheeky response.  Also, this is what happens when nonviolent protesters stand up to cowboys with horses and guns.

Campus security at UCLA administered electric shock through a taser device against Mostopha Tabatabainejad, a student who posed no visible threat simply because he was brown and unable to produce a student ID card. As the student fell to the ground in pain, campus officers demanded he stand up and, when Tabatabainejad was unable, officers tased him again. And again. And again.

All of this was in full view of a library full of witnesses, caught on camera from a variety of video cell phones, and possibly by UCLA security camera. When horrified bystanders asked the officers to stop and demanded their name and badge numbers, officers threatened to tase them as well.

According to witnesses:

At around 11:30 p.m., CSOs asked a male student using a computer in the back of the room to leave when he was unable to produce a BruinCard during a random check. The student did not exit the building immediately.

The CSOs left, returning minutes later, and police officers arrived to escort the student out. By this time the student had begun to walk toward the door with his backpack when an officer approached him and grabbed his arm, at which point the student told the officer to let him go. A second officer then approached the student as well.

The student began to yell "get off me," repeating himself several times.

It was at this point that the officers shot the student with a Taser for the first time, causing him to fall to the floor and cry out in pain. The student also told the officers he had a medical condition …

As the student was screaming, UCPD officers repeatedly told him to stand up and said "stop fighting us." The student did not stand up as the officers requested and they shot him with the Taser at least once more.

After you spend six years telling Americans that Muslims and brown people are the enemy, this is what you get. Be warned, this video is pretty horrifying:

Now to be fair, this video doesn't tell the full story (which hopefully was caught by regular campus security cameras). It may be that campus security witnessed this dude being a jerk when an entire library full of people said he wasn't. But it doesn't really matter, does it? Being an ass, refusing to leave, going limp, or anything else nonviolent is civil disobediance at worst, and by no means worthy of an assualt by police. For the sake of argument, let's say he was behaving in a threatening manner - that would only account for the first electrocution. But repeated assaults after the victim had been incapacitated??

UPDATE:

The Bruin ran an update with comments from the ACLU. Apparently, threatening force against someone requesting your badge number is a crime (you know, in addition to illegally electrocuting and torturing someone for refusing to stand up while brown):

During the altercation between Tabatabainejad and the officers, bystanders can be heard in the video repeatedly asking the officers to stop and requesting their names and identification numbers. The video showed one officer responding to a student by threatening that the student would "get Tased too." At this point, the officer was still holding a Taser.

Such a threat of the use of force by a law enforcement officer in response to a request for a badge number is an "illegal assault," Eliasberg said.

"It is absolutely illegal to threaten anyone who asks for a badge - that's assault," he said.

But according to a study published in the Lancet Medical Journal in 2001, a charge of three to five seconds can result in immobilization for five to 15 minutes, which would mean that Tabatabainejad could have been physically unable to stand when the officers demanded that he do so.

"It is a real mistake to treat a Taser as some benign thing that painlessly brings people under control," said Peter Eliasberg, managing attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.

"The Taser can be incredibly violent and result in death," Eliasberg said.

According to an ACLU report, 148 people in the United States and Canada have died as a result of the use of Tasers since 1999.

Listen people, it is vital that these incidents don’t go unanswered. If UCLA doesn’t feel the repercussions of this incident in a very loud, forceful, and public manner, it will make it that much easier for the next maniacal police officers to do it. Believe it or not, we are not a white, Christian nation. We are and always have been a nation of immigrants and racial profiling in a pluralistic society is not only sick and wrong, but it is illegal. The police and the government work for us, not the other way around – and they will do their jobs in the manner that we demand. Our silence in cases like this amounts to nothing but further acquiescence.

Here is the appropriate contact information for UCLA if anyone wants to express their concerns:

Interim Chancellor Norman Abrams
Telephone: 310-825-2151
Fax: 310-206-6030
Email: chancellor@conet.ucla.edu

Be polite but firm. Tell them you are disturbed by what you saw in the video and would like to know what is being done. Then thank them and hang up. It will take only a few minutes of your day and, above all, will make it clear to UCLA that they are being watched and this is not going away.  Then come back and leave a comment telling us how it went.

Big thanks to Jonathan Schwarz for digging up this interesting piece of Americana: 

Theodore N. Kaufman was a 31-year old owner of a theatrical ticket agency in Newark, New Jersey who published at his own expense a 100-page book titled Germany Must Perish! in March, 1941. It called for the sterilization of the German population and the dismemberment of Germany, with its land being turned over to neighboring states. The book received no serious attention in the U.S., but the Nazis discovered it in July 1941. They played it up big...Late in September 1941, this pamphlet by Wolfgang Diewerge appeared in an edition, according to Goebbels, of five million...A month after publication, the Nazis released a four-page flyer to remind Germans of Kaufman's plan... 

Kaufman remained a mainstay of German propaganda for the remainder of the war, his last major appearance coming in a late-1944 pamphlet titled Never!, which collected every manner of Allied threat against Germany. 

Schwarz’s point is that oftentimes propaganda can be 100% factual.  When Coulter or Limbaugh or FOX News say something completely evil in the name of ratings, it is the record of these statements that is being used against us in a propaganda war in the Middle East – a war in which we are getting creamed.  Unfortunately, we are not dealing with a self-published wackjob from Newark, we’re talking about corporate-sponsored wackjobs with dedicated audiences numbering in the millions.  And the crazier these people get, the harder it is for us to pretend that the anti-American propaganda is wild conspiracy theory. 

That real irony of Schwarz’s post is that he was highlighting this promo from Glenn Beck who, with no sense of irony of his own, is apparently oh-so-astounded at the anti-American propaganda in the Middle East. 

Yeah, can’t imagine where they are getting this stuff.  Oh, wait – here is a transcript of Beck’s interview with our Keith Ellison, our first Muslim Congressman (from MediaMatters): 

On the November 14 edition of his CNN Headline News program, Glenn Beck interviewed Rep.-elect Keith Ellison (D-MN), who became the first Muslim ever elected to Congress on November 7, and asked Ellison if he could "have five minutes here where we're just politically incorrect and I play the cards up on the table." After Ellison agreed, Beck said: "I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' " Beck added: "I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way." 

Video here. 

Seriously, like the Bush administration, FOX owes terrorism for every single ounce of it's mandate (such that it is).  In fact, FOX News loves terrorism so much that they are actively funding it.  No, I am not joking.  Now, in addition to helping destroy the homeland from within, they are actively financing – to the tune of $2 million – terrorist activities abroad.  There’s a good reason why the United States has a policy of not negotiating with terrorists, but like any good modern Republican, FOX thinks that the rules just don’t apply to them.  That if they throw on enough lapel flags, they have some kind of invisible barrier of infallibility.  Hopefully, the MSM will defy expectations and stay on top of this to see how high up it goes.

Honestly, I’ve long become bored with the “FOX News is Evil’ story; there is just nothing particularly new about it.  But of course, this news came on the same day as the the Huffington Post got hold of a “leaked” FOX News memo instructing journalists to be vigilant for “statements from the Iraqi insurgents, who must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled congress.”  So I’m pissed.  And now you will read every damn word I have to say.

First of all, we’ve all seen Outfoxed, we all know The Memo is a fact of life in Murdoch’s hotbed of radical “journalism.”  So I find it difficult to believe that this memo wasn’t leaked intentionally in order to say what FOX wouldn’t dare say on air – that the Democratic election signals the victory of the insurgency.  FOX has never been so much about reporting the news as they are about shaping the news – and whenever possible, making it up themselves.  They have been at the forefront of a national undercurrent of fear-based propaganda from their very inception.  I know it, you know it – dogs know it.  The only people who don't know it are in willful denial.

But to say that the terrorists are rejoicing in a Democratic victory (while admitting the complete dearth of evidence to support such fantasy) is not only one of the most ridiculous accusations in modern politics, it is by monumentally the most laughable act of displacement in the post-911 world.  This ranks right up there with assertion that bin Laden endorsed John Kerry in 2004 which (by the way, also floated by FOX News) despite the fact that the consensus at the CIA was the exact opposite – that bin Laden was trying to help get Bush a second term. 

Fact is, I rather doubt that bin Laden, the Iraqi insurgents, Al-Qaeda, or any other radically militarized non-state network has much idea at all what a Democratic power locus would affect them.  All they know, all that has been proven empirically through repeated testing, is that the Bush administration is the best thing that has ever happened to them.  GOP rule in the War on Terror has elevated a small band of maniacal criminals into an international movement, has eroded the very foundation of liberalism upon which the U.S. was founded, and has all but decimated America’s international reputation. 

In the GOP, our adversaries have a predictability they would be loathe to give up.  Even Rove will tell you that when you have a plan that works you stick with it.  But a Democratic victory has changed the balance of power in the war.  Our adversaries, such as they can be conceived us as a singular entity, no longer know with any degree of certainty how we will behave.  But they can expect a strategy backed by logic, adaptability, and determination.  They can expect a full implementation of the 911 commission’s recommendations.  They can expect a forceful international coalition against the vanguard coupled with a renewed focus on diplomacy and human security that will cut off their legs from below.  And that should scare the hell out of them. 

So no.  I reject the notion that this leak was accidental.  I do, however, submit that the leak of such a statement is one more for the slushpile of evidence that FOX is the propaganda mouthpiece of the GOP unworthy of its press credentials.  A legitimate news organization would be on the lookout for reactions to the election and not seeking to cherry-pick statements expressing giddiness at a Democratic victory.  But FOX was never trying to be legitimate, they were only trying to be relevant. 

I’ve been trying to explain this to American conservatives for years:

Between 1970 and 2000, GDP per person rose by 64% in the United States and by 60% in France. In America, this came about because productivity per worker rose by 38% and hours worked per worker rose by 26%. In France, it came about because productivity rose by 83% while hours worked fell by 23%.

I did live and work in France for several years, and yes, I was surprised at how much vacation time I had. Coming from a lifetime in the U.S. work culture, I was accustomed to 60+ hour work weeks which, in true Office Space style, generally consisted of maybe 10-15 hours of actual work. Can you blame me? I was exhausted!

So it is true that while I was working in France, it often felt like I spent more time with my wine and cheese than my students. But somehow my coworkers and I got the job done, and we got it done to a high standard and with evident pride in our accomplishments. This notion that more hours equates to productivity gains is naïve at best. Yet for some reason, U.S. labor conservatives have never fully grasped the notion of diminishing returns.

Well, with more studies like these coming out, I hope they start. Because their current model is making the U.S. a pretty crappy place to find yourself employed in terms of work-life balance. Not to mention all the tertiary effects of long work hours (or multiple low-paying jobs) – absent parents, crime, obesity, alcoholism and drug use, road rage, crotchety old people …