The first and second movements from Symphony no. 2 by Jean Sibelius (1902).
Performed here by Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
It’s a good version, albeit alternately overwrought and halting on occasions, and not a patch on the LSO/Davis recordings and performances, which remain the best available to date.
Apparently not content with having helped to inflict Sarah Palin on an unsuspecting, unprepared world back in 2008, unabashed neo-conservative Bill Kristol is now actively cheerleading for Palin to run for the US Senate in 2014, in the hopes that she can defeat incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Begich.
Kristol says:
I think the way Palin would possibly resurrect herself, if that’s the right word or rehabilitate herself, I guess is a better way of putting it — run for Senate in Alaska in 2014. I’m not urging that. I’m just saying, if I were her adviser, I would say, take on the incumbent, you have to win a primary, then you have to beat an incumbent Democrat, it’s not easy. But if she did that, suddenly, imagine that, Sarah Palin, freshman Senator in 2015 in Washington, having beaten an incumbent, that’d be pretty interesting.
Interesting? Really? How anyone with as little intellectual firepower as Sarah Palin occupying a seat in the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body (TM) could be seen as “pretty interesting” is almost unfathomable. Awful, certainly, but not interesting in any way. Even otherwise intelligent and sane Republicans, such as Marco Rubio or Rand Paul, are set dead against the idea of compromise or governance of any kind. How would adding another entity with similar views (ObamaCare = worst thing ever, immigration reform must be stopped, let’s cut taxes but raise spending on defense and benefits for old people who vote) but no brain to justify them help matters at all?
Someone needs to get Dick Morris to predict a landslide Palin victory in a potential Senate contest with Mark Begich so I can sleep easier at night again.
By now you have probably already watched the toe-curlingly, excruciatingly embarrassing car crash of an interview between Fox News host Lauren Green and her guest, the author and religious scholar Reza Aslan:
Every website, commenter and pundit has already said their piece, most to the tune of “what do you expect from Fox News, they are the unabashed mouthpiece of the religious, fundamentalist Christian right wing in America”. After awhile, watching and reading the variations-on-a-theme commentary became tiresome.
Until I discovered Glenn Beck’s alternative analysis on Reza Aslan and his book, “Zealot”:
Apparently, Aslan is a phony Muslim and a phony scholar. His true identity – of course – is that of a radical progressive. This is made clear by the fact that Beck sticks the logos of various liberal groups (and, of course, archvillain George Soros) tenuously associated with Aslan on his rotating blackboard:
Oh no! MediaMatters! The Center for American Progress! Beck has torn apart Reza Aslan’s shadowy liberal secret life in only nine minutes.
Because of course in Glenn Beck Land it is impossible to be a Muslim, a scholar and a liberal all at the same time. To acknowledge that fact would be to undermine his entire fear mongering, super profitable worldview.
Some of the best darn analysis on the Anthony Weiner – NYC Mayoral race that I have read to date, from a fellow WordPress blogger that I just discovered. As she correctly states: “A little evidence of his disgusting perversion does not bring down the quality of his leadership. It doesn’t erase the fact that he was the smart and determined representative and councilman from New York who helped revitalize Sheepshead Bay, pushed for affordable heath care, improved the condition of developments, and became an active supporter of gay rights.” And: “When it comes to the government, sometimes we have to settle. If we, the American people, keep holding savior-like expectations for our country’s leaders, we’ll be left with very boring news and a lot of disappointment.” Amen to that.
Recently, NYC mayoral candidate and the face (penis) of sexting-gone-wrong, stated that his rough and controversial campaign represents the city’s renowned fighting spirit and ability to bounce back from tough situations. If anything, his situation helps him identify with “many New Yorkers who wake up everyday with a pretty tough day ahead of them.”
I can make fun of Weiner like everybody else but that’s not the type of person I am. Always pulling for the little guy, I am going to defend him on this one.
And yes, “little guy” is a euphemism for penis.
Besides, I think when a politician named Weiner gets involved in a sex scandal like this, it’s simply too easy. It’s a gift from the comedy gods that should not be abused.
We thank you for this truly disturbing gift.
So here is a list I composed, after taking a couple doses of 5…
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Some very disturbing new findings about the extent to which the US government uses the vast power of its surveillance apparatus to tackle suspected domestic crime. Of course, up until this point we had been reassured that the draconian collection of telecommunications metadata and the full-on tapping of telephone calls and online communications was used only to help prosecute the “War On Terror”. This has now been revealed to be a total sham.
Rachel Maddow breaks down the extent of this surreptitious, lawless activity on her show:
And Reuters reports:
Reuters has uncovered previously unreported details about a separate program, run by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, that extends well beyond intelligence gathering. Its use, legal experts say, raises fundamental questions about whether the government is concealing information used to investigate and help build criminal cases against American citizens.
The DEA program is run by a secretive unit called the Special Operations Division, or SOD. Here is how NSA efforts exposed by Snowden differ from the activities of the SOD:
Purpose of the programs
NSA: To use electronic surveillance to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation catch terrorists, the U.S. military fight wars, and the Central Intelligence Agency collect intelligence about foreign governments.
SOD: To help the DEA and other law enforcement agents launch criminal investigations of drug dealers, money launderers and other common criminals, including Americans. The unit also handles global narco-terrorism cases.
So to be perfectly clear – the United States government has explicitly decided to allow this vast spying program to be turned inwards to aid local law enforcement in their daily mundane activities. According to the (already flimsy) assurances that we were given when Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the NSA’s secret programmes, the spying apparatus was to be used only to seek out and intercept communications between non-US citizens that represented a terrorism threat. But it turns out that this is not the case. If an intelligence analyst happens to eavesdrop on your telephone call and finds out that you want to (hypothetically) buy some pot from your friendly local drug dealer, that information might then be surreptitiously passed on to the DEA, who could then come and raid your home. Based on intelligence which they have no right to be privy to.
But worst of all is this bombshell:
Disclosure to the accused
NSA: Collection of domestic data by the NSA and FBI for espionage and terrorism cases is regulated by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. If prosecutors intend to use FISA or other classified evidence in court, they issue a public notice, and a judge determines whether the defense is entitled to review the evidence. In a court filing last week, prosecutors said they will now notify defendants whenever the NSA phone-records database is used during an investigation.
SOD: A document reviewed by Reuters shows that federal drug agents are trained to “recreate” the investigative trail to conceal the SOD’s involvement. Defense attorneys, former prosecutors and judges say the practice prevents defendants from even knowing about evidence that might be exculpatory. They say it circumvents court procedures for weighing whether sensitive, classified or FISA evidence must be disclosed to a defendant.
Local and federal law enforcement officers are actually being trained – instructed – to cover up the fact that the evidence they use to come and arrest you was unlawfully shared by the folks at the NSA. Apparently the clinical, non-threatening term for this is “recreating the investigative trail”. So rather than going to court and admitting that your evidence against the accused came from an NSA tip-off based on illegal spying by the government, agents are encouraged to falsify the account of their investigations and potentially perjure themselves by stating on the record that it was their own brilliant deductive and crime-solving abilities which led to the arrest.
It is hard to adequately describe how foul, deceitful and criminal this behaviour really is.
There was no excuse for allowing the NSA to violate the fourth amendment protection against unreasonable or unwarranted searches when it pertained to potential terrorism. There is certainly no excuse for widening this harassment in aid of civilian law enforcement.
Semi-Partisan Sam says no. This oppressive “national security” apparatus must be rolled back, and those responsible for willfully violating the Constitution must face the legal consequences of their actions.
Semi-Partisan Politics 