Author: James Bovard

The Opus cartoon in Sunday’s paper is one of the finest Memorial Day tributes I have seen anywhere. 

Cartoonist Berkeley Breathed ruled the 1980s with Bloom County, and today’s cartoon is one of his best since then.

(Comments et al. welcome at my blog entry on the cartoon here).

Mobs of cops were in Washington, DC last week for National Police Week. Their behavior was so bad that the DC police chief formally notified them that their public drunkenness would not be tolerated.

Many of the cops were bicycling around to draw attention to their campaign for a memorial to cops killed on duty.  I was cycling around downtown on Saturday, May 12.   Not only were they running red lights en masse, but they would surge out into busy streets and hold their hands up as if every driver was obliged to slam on the brakes (despite the green light) – and let royalty proceed.  They could have easily caused an accident – and perhaps they did at times when I was not watching.  (I did not see the cop biker I photographed above on his bike, and have no idea if he violated any laws).

The Washington Post reported early last week:

“D.C. Police Chief Cathy L.  Lanier  put out fliers yesterday warning officers in town for National Police Week that they must obey city laws covering disorderly conduct, public drunkenness and other ” unacceptable behavior.” 
     Lanier  ordered the fliers distributed around downtown in hopes of curbing complaints about officers drinking in public, playing loud music and causing other trouble.

The Washington Post printed a couple letters to the editor on lawless cops on Saturday.  Greg Davis of Reston, Virginia, complained:   

Every year about this time, the District is subjected to bands of revelers who terrorize the local populace. Many of them are arrogant, belligerent and inebriated, and they violate laws at will. And our local police pretty much ignore them.

   Why? Because these are police officers from other jurisdictions around the
country who have come here to “honor fallen officers.”

**

I wonder if federal antiterrorism grants paid for some of the cops’ trips to rampage in DC.

Comments on this topic welcome at my blog here  (where there is a larger photo of the cop).  

Hats off to Ron Paul for another great performance in the Republican presidential debate in South Carolina last night.

For almost six years, politicians have acted as if it is federal crime to speak bluntly about 9/11.    On the day of the attacks, George Bush proclaimed that the hijackers attacked because they hate America for its freedom.  This has been treated as a revealed truth ever since.  (When I saw Bush on TV that day, I was perplexed how the US government could know the motive before it knew the identity of the hijackers).

Ron Paul has never kowtowed to this dogma, and last night he deftly debunked the 9/11 catechism: “They attack us because we’ve been over there; we’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years.”

 As Justin noted, Giuliani sought to huff-and-puff Paul’s truth off the stage.  But the Republican establishment’s hot air isn’t going to succeed this time.

I have a long quote from the debate transcript over at my blog, where comments on Paul, Guiliani, et al. are welcome.

This is from the “Celebrate Public Service Recognition” exhibition on the Smithsonian Mall in Washington this weekend.

If they put a sign saying “Rule of Law” on front of the howitzer, people would figure it was just one more post-9/11 decorative change.

Some people look at the howitzer and think how easily it could be turned at Congress.

Folks don’t recognize that the barrel is already pointing in their direction.

Other photos I took yesterday of the military on the Mall are at my blog here.

Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield gave the esteemed Jefferson lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities last night in Washington.

According to the NEH website, “The Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities recognizes an individual who has made significant scholarly contributions to the humanities and who has the ability to communicate the knowledge and wisdom of the humanities in a broadly appealing way. Established in 1972, the Jefferson Lecture is the highest honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual and public achievement in the humanities.”

Mansfield would be a more appropriate choice for a Robespierre Lecture than for a Jefferson Lecture.  Last week in the Wall Street Journal, Mansfield proclaimed that the president is above the rule of law  – but reassured readers that “”A free government should show its respect for freedom even when it has to take it away.”

And, since the president is entitled to dictatorial powers, how would we know it is a “free government”?  Presumably because it would be a crime to assert otherwise.

I am struck by how many advocates of dicatorship or foreign aggression have recently received federal laurels.  Bush presented the National Humanities Award to the Hoover Institution last November, whose star columnist Thomas Sowell recently suggested the need for a military coup.  Pro-Iraq war professors Fouad Ajami, Bernard Lewis, and Shelby Steele also garnered the award.  (Mansfield received this award in 2004).  Bush gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Paul Bremer, George Tenet, Tommy Franks, Gen. Richard Myers, and various writers who fervently applauded attacking Iraq.

American intellectual life would be cleaner if politicians were banned from heaping accolades on their bootlickers and tools. (Admittedly, private groups would continue giving such awards – the Bradley Foundation recently feted John Bolton and the Claremont Institute will soon salute Don Rumsfeld).

I’m curious – what other private or government awards or laurels have gone to major-league Bush administration rascals or their apologists?

Add the names of award receipients – or your comments – at my blog here.

Paul Wolfowitz is now almost certain to get booted from the World Bank.  Unfortunately, the World Bank itself will probably survive.  (The Washington Post frets today that the Wolfowitz scandal could “jeopardize” efforts to squeeze more bucks out of foreign governments to bankroll more World Bank boondoggles).

So what will Wolfowitz do with himself now that he is again disgraced?

Obviously, this is why God made think tanks.

There is no better place for someone driven out of office under a cloud of infamy to park his butt and restore his credibility.

Will it be the Hudson Institute, the deep-thinking-abode that is providing a desk for Scooter Libby before Libby is sentenced to prison?

Will it be the American Enterprise Institute, which has a natural affinity to Wolfowitz’s chickenhawk warmongering?

Will it be the Heritage Foundation, which has never permitted itself to be prejudiced by a former high-ranking government official’s scandals?

Stay tuned.   Add your comments or your prediction on which think tank will take Wolfowitz at my blog here.