From Politico:

“The dumbest part: they did two pat-down demonstrations – male on male, and female on female,” the House staffer said. And they used a young female TSA volunteer “and in front of a room of 200 people, they touched her breasts and her buttocks. People were averting their eyes. The TSA was trying to demonstrate ‘this is not so bad,’ but it made people so uncomfortable to watch, that people were averting their eyes.”

“They shot themselves in the foot,” the staffer continued.

Remember, if you fly tomorrow, the terrorists win.

So, 11-year-old bombers get a pass?

MYANMAR/BURMA — I’ve argued before and I continue to believe that any economic sanction short of total embargo and blockade is meaningless in a capitalist world where there will always be unscrupulous trading partners willing to look the other way when there is profit to be made.

Last Thursday, Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies at the New Delhi-based Center for Policy Research, attempted to argue on the op-ed page of the New York Times that in the post-election world of Myanmar, it was time to ease sanctions of that country. Chellaney cites the world’s reaction to China after the Tienanmen Square massacre as a positive reason why Myanmar’s generals should get a pass.

There is no reason why a weak, impoverished Myanmar should continue to be held to a higher human-rights standard than an increasingly assertive China. Why deny Myanmar the international-trade opportunities that have allowed the world’s biggest executioner, China, to prosper?

Chellaney has the issue precisely backward, as letter-writer Peter Ripley notes in yesterday’s Times:

Sadly, instead of logically concluding that China should suffer the same penalties as Myanmar, Mr. Chellaney argues for easing sanctions and increasing economic ties with the Burmese regime.

Ripley is right.

Meanwhile, the Btfsplk’ng of Aung San Suu Kyi continues.

Do what you can to make this a good morning, Myanmar.

From The Associated Press:

Bonn’s state court said in a statement Monday that 89-year-old Samuel Kunz died on November 18.

Kunz was indicted on charges he was involved in the entire process of killing Jews at the Belzec death camp: from taking victims from trains to pushing them into gas chambers to throwing corpses into mass graves. No trial date had been set.

Efraim Zuroff, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s top Nazi hunter… said Kunz’s name first came up in investigations connected to the trial of John Demjanjuk.

Demjanjuk, age 90, is currently on trial in Munich on charges of being an accessory to the murder of 28,060 Jews as a guard at the Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland. He denies he was ever a camp guard.

Prosecutors allege that both Kunz and Demjanjuk trained as guards at the Trawniki SS camp.

The wheels of justice can grind too slowly.

President Barack Hussein Obama is helping the terrorist to win by ensuring that Americans increasingly forgo their rights in silly acts of theater that now have law-abiding citizens forced to either submit to pornoscans or physical gropings.

I haven’t flown in years and it would take an extreme case to convince me to fly now under the current rules.

I’m not a criminal and I don’t appreciate the idea that I will be treated like one so that former head of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff can get richer.

Vice President Dick Cheney was ignorant for proposing his 1 percent doctrine for invading Iraq and people are equally ignorant for suggesting that when a plane goes down, not scanning will be the cause.

If you must fly on Wednesday, remember that it is National Opt-Out Day.

MYANMAR/BURMA — I made the point following the most recent release of Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest into the general prison population that is Myanmar under the State Peace and Development Council (aka, the nation’s military dictators) that the word freed simply did not apply.

John Simpson reinforces that point:

Aung San Suu Kyi may have been released from her long years of house arrest, but she is still not free. The Burmese military government restricts her almost as much as ever.

Her son Kim is waiting in Bangkok, just over an hour’s flight away, but the Burmese authorities have not given him a visa to go and see her. She herself cannot leave the country, for fear that she will never be allowed to return. Her political party, the National League for Democracy, no longer exists officially. And she is under the observation of the security police twenty-four hours day.

Dr Suu Kyi’s officials assume that both her house and her headquarters are thoroughly bugged, in order to find out what her plans are and perhaps dig up further excuses to put her back under house arrest. Characteristically, her response is to take no notice. She certainly has not watered down her political line.

The government watches her obviously and aggressively, trying to cramp her style as she returns to daily life. Across the road from her headquarters, in a couple of shacks which are now an ad hoc police station, a group of plain-clothes security policemen is always gathered.

They are equipped with expensive stills and video cameras, and anyone who goes in or out of the headquarters is filmed and photographed. This is obviously a useful way of keeping tabs on any visitors, but it is also intended to intimidate Dr Suu Kyi’s supporters.

Characteristically, when I asked her about the activities of the security police last week, she maintained she had scarcely noticed them. This may not be literally true, but it is a statement of her state of mind. She insists on behaving as though she is completely free, and she seems to take no account of the police or the government’s sensitivities. Dr Suu Kyi is not a lady to mince her words.

As long as one political prisoner remains in Myanmar, no one is free.

Do what you can to make this a good morning, Myanmar.

MYANMAR/BURMA — The generals clearly have a new strategy for marginalizing Aung San Suu Kyi: harass, arrest or toss into the street anyone or any organization that invites her to visit.

From the Associated Press:

Burma’s government ordered more than 80 people at a shelter for patients with HIV and AIDS to leave following a visit by newly freed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the center’s organizers said Saturday.

Suu Kyi, released a week ago from seven years under house arrest, visited the shelter on the outskirts of Rangoon on Wednesday, promising to provide it with badly needed medicines. She also addressed a crowd of more than 600 who came to see her.

A day after her visit, government officials told patients they would have to leave by next week or face legal action because the center’s permit was not being renewed, said Phyu Phyu Thin, a pro-democracy activist who founded the operation. By law, home owners must seek government permission every two weeks to allow visitors to stay overnight.

*For all you youngsters…

Do what you can to make this a good morning, Myanmar.

From 1730 today until 1830 tomorrow, I will be off-line. There will be no new posts during this time, nor will I be checking email. Go for a walk. Have coffee with a friend. Read a book.

Here’s an idea: install porno scanners at every single feckin’ political office building in Washington, D.C., and make it mandatory, absolutely no exceptions, none, nada, that everyone entering a federal building be subjected to either a pornoscan or a grope by the TSA goons. Baring that unlikely occurrence, a dedicated cadre of videographers should start following all elected officials flying on commercial flights to see which option — pornoscan or grope, or, and my money is on option three, they’re waved through with no check.

The absurdity threat level is way past red.

From Redstate:

Soldiers on the way home from war, who had already been inspected, reinspected and kept in a SECURE holding area for 2 hours. Ok, whatever. So we lined up to go through security AGAIN.

This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.

So we’re in line, going through one at a time. One of our Soldiers had his Gerber multi-tool. TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous, but it gets better. A few minutes later, a guy empties his pockets and has a pair of nail clippers. Nail clippers. TSA informs the Soldier that they’re going to confiscate his nail clippers. The conversation went something like this:

TSA Guy: You can’t take those on the plane.

Soldier: What? I’ve had them since we left country.

TSA Guy: You’re not suppose to have them.

Soldier: Why?

TSA Guy: They can be used as a weapon.

Soldier: [touches butt stock of the rifle] But this actually is a weapon. And I’m allowed to take it on.

Here’s a bet, anyone want to give me odds against my assumption that no TSA goon demanded that a single soldier jack open their weapon and prove that there was no round chambered?

Via Mano Singham and Jeffrey Goldberg…

1623 We Know How to Teach Black Kids

From Sarah Wilson-Jones:

Hi Jeff!

Hope you’re doing well!

Just wanted to reach out to you and let you know about something that might interest you and other writers you know.

Phoenix is hosting an overnight Write-In at the Lee Road location (2287 Lee Road in Cleveland Heights) this Saturday November 20th starting at 11 pm till 6 am Sunday morning. We are selling tickets for $15 each on our website and at the Lee Road store. The ticket is good for a $10 gift certificate to be used that evening and a breakfast croissant break at 4 am. Profits from the event will go to benefit National Novel Writing Month’s parent organization, the Office of Letters & Light. After 5 pm on the 20th tickets go up to $20 “at the door”.

I thought you might be able to pass this along to anyone you know who is doing NaNoWriMo and other writers who might be interested in joining us. It should be a fun and unique event, and hopefully quite productive for all!

What a great way to spend a Saturday night at Phoenix.

MYANMAR/BURMA — When politicians in the United States tell us that they’re embarking on a listening tour of their possible constituents, we tend to view the plot through a skeptical lens. When released Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi says that she first wants to listen to the people of Burma’s voices, the message rings true.

From The Irrawaddy:

In her first meeting with associates following her release from house arrest, Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi told the leaders of her party, the National League for Democracy, and other opposition leaders on Saturday evening that she wanted to first listen to the people before engaging in new activities and wanted to form a strong “people’s network.”

According to NLD leader Ohn Kyaing, Suu Kyi’s first words at the meeting were: “I want to listen to the people of Burma’s voices. I want to obey the people’s wishes. So I want to engage in activities that put me in touch with the people.”

Suu Kyi does have broader plans that include both her fellow political prisoners and working toward unifying Myanmar in ways the State Peace and Development Council (aka, Myanmar’s military dictators) could not.

Suu Kyi also said that one of her top priorities was the release of all of the estimated 2,200 political prisoners held in Burma’s prisons, and discussed national reconciliation, ethnic minorities and interactions with the military, said Ohn Kyaing.

“Reflecting NLD policy, she said that national reconciliation— including reconciliation with and among ethnic groups—is necessary for a democratic nation,” he said.

“She said she has been thinking about a second Panglong Conference for a long time and she will try to organize such an event,” said Ohn Kyaing. The 1947 Panglong Conference was led by Suu Kyi’s father, Gen Aung San, for the purpose of achieving unity among Burma’s various organizations and ethnic groups in their drive for independence from Great Britain.

“She added that genuine dialogue with the Tatmadaw [the armed forces] and all stakeholders is essential for national reconciliation.”

Do what you can to make this a good morning, Myanmar.

I met Jill Miller Zimon, Tim Russo and the amazing artist Bridget Daryl Ginley at Dewey’s on Shaker Square to view Bridget’s holiday cards for 2010. I bought 10. Each is handcrafted and signed. Get yours before they’re gone.

MYANMAR/BURMA — Aung San Suu Kyi is organizing her followers and all democracy loving peoples of Myanmar to support human rights and the rule of law in her country. I’m still skeptical of how long the State Peace and Development Council (aka, Myanmar’s military dictators) can tolerate her activist presence and I fear for her life as she walks among the general population that remains no better than a prison.

Courage is acting when the danger and your fear are real.

From the Democratic Voice of Burma:

Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi reached out to Burma’s splintered opposition forces on Sunday, calling on thousands of exuberant supporters to unite following her release from house arrest.

“Please keep your energy for us. If we work together, we will reach our goal,” she told a sea of followers outside her party headquarters, suggesting years of isolation have not weakened her stance against military rule.

“I want to work with all democratic forces,” said the 65-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has been locked up by Burma’s ruling generals for 15 of the past 21 years.

“I believe in human rights and I believe in the rule of law,” she added.

She said she wanted to “hear the voice of the people” before deciding her course of action, following a controversial election a week ago in which the military government’s political proxies have claimed a landslide win.

Suu Kyi, an internationally admired symbol of peaceful resistance, was freed on Saturday after her latest seven-year stretch of detention, a move greeted with jubilation by her followers and welcomed by world leaders.

A huge crowd gathered outside the Rangoon headquarters of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) for the speech and she initially struggled to make her way through the crush of people.

Supporters filled the street outside, some carrying banners saying: “We love Suu”.

Wearing a dark blue longyi – Burma’s sarong-like traditional dress – Suu Kyi said that she had been treated well during detention and had “no grudge” against the authorities.

Do what you can to make this a good morning, Myanmar.