E M P H Y R I O

Followup - A Mystery Solved

I love followups, particularly when the story is so crazy. 

A New Hampshire Democratic congressional primary candidate had a car accident, disappeared, then stumbled out on a playground the next day, telling of a head injury and a night in the woods.

He wasn't particularly suffering from exposure or otherwise harmed, though.  It was fishy.

Prosecutors have concluded it's fishy enough to prosecute.  Their motion alleges:

...Dodds had taken out two mortgages on property without the approval of his wife, Cynthia, to fund his campaign...

...Dodds fabricated the story he told police and falsified his physical appearance in an attempt to gain publicity to help propel his campaign for the United States Congress...Dodds believed the publicity garnered from this accident would increase the visibility of his campaign, allowing him to pay back the mortgages...

Imagine the desperation involved.  It reminds me of the Bill Macy character in Fargo.

This could make a pretty good dark comedy, climaxing on election night (he lost).

I wonder how his finances, and marriage, are doing.

Since I'm Tired of Looking at Torture

But this Thanksgiving weekend I'm busy, I'll make this item on the Kindle my featured post.

Kindle as in Kindling, did they intend?  As in lighting a bonfire on which to toss all those stupid "dead tree" books?

I've no doubt that once the price drops I'll want one of these...bringing a hundred books on a trip will be too great a lure...but the book-as-object-of-love will be a sad casualty. 

Of course they'll always be around, but I expect cover art will be an anachronism assigned to "retro chic" status, and the publishing industry will be convulsed and a shadow of itself the way the railroads were.

Tortured to Justify War

Via Atrios, from a while back, this ABC News Blotter entry by Stephen Grey struck me as one of the strongest arguments against torture, which apparently we still need to make.

A suspect was "rendered" to Egypt for interrogation.  He was tortured. They didn't like his answers at first, so they took it further:

Al Libi indicated that his interrogators did not like his responses and then "placed him in a small box approximately 50cm X 50cm [20 inches x 20 inches]."  He claimed he was held in the box for approximately 17 hours. When he was let out of the box, al Libi claims that he was given a last opportunity to "tell the truth."

Think about it.  20 x 20.  Even if it was one hour, it would be agony, cramping, claustrophobia, panic.  I found a picture of a box that size, although only the park bench it's sitting on gives scale.  Click to enlarge:

 Oh, and the information they wanted? 

...how Saddam Hussein had been training al Qaeda in chemical weapons. This evidence was used by Colin Powell at the United Nations a year earlier (February 2003) to justify the war in Iraq. ("I can trace the story of a senior terrorist operative telling how Iraq provided training in these [chemical and biological] weapons to al Qaeda," Powell said. "Fortunately, this operative is now detained, and he has told his story.")

Powell has since acknowledged his speech was erroneous.  A "blot" on his record.

So there we have it.

...one of the key pieces of evidence for the Iraq war -- the al Qaeda/Iraq link -- was not only false but extracted by effectively burying a prisoner alive.

Bring this up next time someone is citing the ticking time bomb.

Torture elicits anything you want to hear.  It is never justified.

 

The Bush Legacy

I'm sure Captain Voltin is beeing agreeable and respectful here.  But I have not seen a better photo that sums up the Bush legacy (except maybe the guy standing on the box with the wires).

I hope that face haunts his dreams.  Click to enlarge.

Emphyrio Wrong; Inform the Press

I figured, first off, that Carol Anne Gotbaum must've been victim of a chokehold.

I just couldn't see how a woman shackled to a bench could strangle herself.

In subsequent posts (just keep cycling forward from that one) I backed down, as I learned some people actually can move cuffs from front to back.

Now the autopsy seems to clear the cops.

The lady had enough booze and chemicals in her to do quite unlikely things.

They sure banged her up, though.

Officers checked on Gotbaum minutes after she stopped screaming, and found her with the chain and handcuffs, which had been behind her back, around her neck area.

Efforts to revive her failed.

Gotbaum had about 35 bruises on her neck, arms and legs, including her knees and elbows, and scrapes, according to the autopsy report. Her neck injuries included "chain impressions," said the report, with police saying they found her handcuffed hands next to her neck.

The .24 percent blood-alcohol level by itself wasn't fatal but could have made her unconscious and unable to extricate herself from the accidental hanging, said a pathology expert who reviewed the autopsy report at the request of The Associated Press.

"She's certainly acutely alcohol intoxicated," said Dr. Jonathan Arden...

She had a loving husband and little kids.  She was trying to fly to rehab and was barred from her flight, and she flipped out. 

A very sad story.

 

And Now I Shall Call The Great Dragon to Eat the Sun

Via Krugman, a funny.  Drought-striken Georgia's governor Purdue is holding a prayer meeting to pray for rain Tuesday, on which rain is forecasted.

Watch this guy next solar eclipse.

There He Goes Again

I imagine Fred Thompson's aides are becoming athletically skilled at eye-rolling.  The poor guy can't get a break, wearing Gucci loafers to state fairs, begging for applause from stony audiences, etc.

Here he manages to send out a dog-whistle on abortion, except it's to the pro-choice side.

Pro-lifers are livid, of course.

If We Get President Hillary

Prepare yourself for a plethora of colorful conspiracy stories.

They're getting a running start already.

...the medical examiner's report noted, "Exam at site revealed five notes." There was one for each of us -- me, Shannon, Patrick, and a couple of others.

Ed wrote his good-byes, said he'd done a bad thing, and wished us well. He told me he was a fool and out of control.

He told Shannon that she was going to be a great doctor. He told my son to look after Shannon and me. And he asked us to forgive him. How anyone could sit and write such letters is beyond me. But then, I could never understand how he could leave us, either.

And while the letters are in his writing, I also know that anyone would write anything at gunpoint.

I know, this is the point where people say, "Ah, she's nuts."

I'd be a little more compassionate.  Losing a spouse to suicide is a big, jagged pill to swallow.  I'd look for somebody outside to blame, too.

But I wouldn't seek a book deal.

Last Straw for Brits?

In Baghdad, an Iraqi police death squad busted in, killed a bunch of women and also a Brit "security worker," (maybe working for their version of Blackwater?) who was visitiing his girlfriend.  It's ugly. 

They beat the hell out of him then shot him in the back and then the gut.  Not a quick death.

A 15-year old girl, shot in the head, survived, and picked the cops out of a photo book of hundreds of faces. 

All the faces she picked were in the same unit.  Seems plausible.

The Brits have been pulling out anyway.  Maybe this'll lead to completing that.

If By Some Miracle...

...we recover from this period of madness with our country intact and functioning, and can look back upon it with a degree of detachment and amusement, then the saga of the Liberty Seven must, simply must, be made into a movie.

It'll be a comedy.

These are the guys who were hitting up an Al Qaeda rep (actually an FBI informant) for money and weapons (and boots!) so they could, supposedly, blow up the Sears Tower.

Frankly, I believe Mr. Batiste.  He was just trying to scam money out of a Jihadist.

I particularly like that the FBI plant showed up at the hotel with a turban and a wooden staff.

What I love about it is that nobody involved was a terrorist, although each party thought the other was.  We were paying untold thousands so some Americans could play a role playing game.

Playing with ourselves, expensively.