Productive day

I spent a great deal of time yesterday on Twitter providing offsite support for the #912dc march and the #teaparty in general.  The goal was to support our local contingent who traveled to DC.

instugator Coverage from the Straits Times: http://bit.ly/rRmqX #912dc #teaparty

instugator RT @SEAL_Strong: RT @DontGoLeft: Wow...Good coverage of #912dc on MSNBC? I am spchlss! http://bit.ly/cQIb #teaparty #glennbeck <I'm amazed>

instugator RT @deteaparty: Just got off phn w/ daughter in UK. They have bn showin #912dc cov NON-STOP! Compare that 2 R MSM!!! #teaparty #tpp
instugator Another roundup by Reason's Matt Welch on the #912dc #teaparty http://bit.ly/7PDlE

instugator Here is @michellemalkin roundup of the #912dc #teaparty http://bit.ly/DIhE5

instugator Discussion of the impact of #912dc events. http://bit.ly/dcFoC

Cass Sunstein anyone?

Glenn Reynolds thinks it is unfair to spin Cass' "presumed consent" as "mandatory organ donation."  Ed Morrissey at Hotair seems to see things the way that Prof Reynolds does.

Presumed consent means that the government presumes that you have given your consent to be an organ donor unless you have specifically opted out of the program.  The practical upshot is that if you die and your driver's license doesn't happen to be stuck to your forehead "non-organ donor" side out - then you will be harvested for everything they can take.

Stew's view:
I really don't care what Europeans do.  Ed mentions that this system is the one they have in Spain.  The United States isn't Spain.  Presumed consent means that my government presumes a property claim on my body, before that of my heirs - how is this possible?
I am an organ donor now.  This will change if my government adopts a presumed consent policy.  My organs belong to me and my heirs; my government has no business in the transaction.  If this policy passes, I will opt out immediately until such time as my heirs can be compensated for the donation.  If we want to solve our organ shortage, permit people to sell them.

In any event - Devotees of Roe v. Wade better pay attention to this debate because it is another erosion of the right to privacy found in that Supreme Court decision.  Just like the public option or any form of nationalized healthcare.

Addl Van Jones Idiocy

Van Jones, President Obama's Green Jobs Czar, was compelled to retire because of the content of his character (h/t Ed Driscoll).

Pat at So It goes in Shreveport unearths the only excuse being given for Van Jones resignation by those on the left: The color of his skin.
From HuffPo's Carl Pope:

There are three possible reasons. They are connected, and it is their connection that is important.

1) Van Jones, unlike everyone else I have quoted on the topic of our oil addiction and George Bush's complicity with it, is African-American.

2) By specifying that Bush's addiction was "crack-head"-like, Jones linked Bush to a drug largely used in the black community.

3) Van Jones works for the first black man to be elected president.

Carl continues, "This is about politics, but it is empowered by race. If you doubt that, consider that Fox and Glenn Beck have been after Jones for a month -- but only since Beck began losing advertisers over his accusations that Obama was a racist."

Stew's View:

The epithet "racist" is already the worst thing that can be said of someone in the US. The left is now (and has always) used it as the argument of last resort. It is being overused - and will soon lose its power to persuade all but the truly radical. But it will remain the the worst thing you can say about someone, with predictable results - to whit, the first person to use it in an argument, absent any evidence in support of it, will be presumed to have lost.

As an aside, My home state of Louisiana once had the choice between a Racist and a Crook for Governor. The crook won overwhelmingly.

ElBaradei Says I.A.E.A. Is in ‘Stalemate’ With Iran - NYTimes.com

ElBaradei Says I.A.E.A. Is in ‘Stalemate’ With Iran - NYTimes.com

A stalemate occurs when the player whose turn it is to move is not in check and has no legal moves - Chess.
The analogy fails here, because:

1. There are no overriding rules that both the IAEA and Iran have agreed to 'play' under.
2. Iran has (or will shortly obtain) the material it needs to complete a bomb.
3. The IAEA lacks both the capability and the will to compel compliance.

A better analogy is that we are in the endgame portion, with Iran clearly in control of the board.
 

Amazon goes beyond apology.

This summer, Amazon found that one of its ebook retailers was selling 1984 and other books that it did not have the rights to.  Amazon responded by banning the seller and deleting the books from each purchaser's Kindle.

Furor erupts.

Jeff Bezos Apologized.

Now Amazon is offering to return the book, give a $30 gift certificate, or a $30 check.

How Kooky are you?

Tunku Varadarajan has an article in Forbes this morning where he dismisses those of us who are distrustful of President Obama's speech to our children as "Demented."

Ht Instapundit.

Consequences of (Not So) Smart Diplomacy

Convicted terrorist goes free.  Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was convicted on January 31, 2001 of 270 counts of murder for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 (21 December 1988).  The remains of the plane rained down on Lockerbie, Scotland.

On Aug 20, 2009 Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was released from Scottish custody and was repatriated to Libya.  The wikipedia article is here.

Since his repatriation, a number of facts have come to light.  Here is a Time Magazine article to shed some light on the different discussions.
A Timeline:

• British oil companies were negotiating for deals in Libya in 2007.
• British Justice Minister Jack Straw, wrote a letter to Scotland's 1st minister in Feb 2008 regarding "developing a strong relationship with Libya."
• A prisoner transfer agreement was finalized between Great Britain and Libya in November 2008
• There was a meeting in March 2009 where the position was advanced that al-Megrahi should not die in jail.
• PM Gordon Brown discussed the case with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi during the G8 Summit in July 2009.

The release sparked outrage her in the US, rightly so, and until this morning I thought it a result of President Obama's "Smart Diplomacy" - the snubs of Great Britain that I detailed here, here, and here.
That is, I thought that the Brits were being petty - and that my own government, while being inept, did not have knowledge of the transfer until it was too late.  I was wrong in that assumption. 

It turns out that President Obama's administration did know about the transfer, having been, "kept informed at all stages of discussions concerning Megrahi’s return."

The Daily Mail continues,

The officials say the Americans spoke out because they were taken aback by the row over Megrahi’s release, not because they did not know it was about to happen.

In other words, our new administration is so completely out of touch with America that they could not gauge what the reaction would be to releasing a terrorist who murdered 270 people, 180 of them American. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211495/No-10-turns-Obama-Clinton-criticising-decision-release-Lockerbie-bomber.html#ixzz0QNKX8HxA

Here is another take, from Powerline Blog.

UPDATED:

Hotair picks up the thread from Astute Bloggers, but you read it here 1st :-)  I disagree with Astute Bloggers' conclusion - this action (on the part of BOTH 2008 Democratic Presidential candidates) is reprehensible and simply adds to the body of evidence that that this administration suffers from glaring incompetence (or hubris) I am unable to tell which.