My recent Wikipedia searches.

• “apache helicopter”
• “house cat”
• “mescal”
• “neutron bomb”
• “stealth ship”
• “vicodin”

Take that, Buy Nothing Day!

I just bought a MacBook Pro on Amazon. I will be in debt for a while.

However, if you’re also thinking about a new Mac, Amazon’s got a better deal than Apple (even the Education Store), thanks to their pricing, a $100 rebate and no tax.

I am thankful for…

Carrots! Nom nom nom.

(Neither of these are Quipu. HT: Google Image Search and this guy)

Thanksgiving plans.

For the Chicagoans:

Joan Baez – Day After Tomorrow (Tom Waits cover, direct MP3)

See you in two days.

Pardon me, sir.

President Bush’s administration is said to be leaning away from blanket pardons for those involved in torture. The President’s recently-proposed “midnight regulations” include rules that would

Make it harder for the government to limit workers’ exposure to toxins, eliminate environmental review from decisions affecting fisheries, and ease restrictions on companies that blow up mountains to get at the coal underneath them[, ...] allow “factory farms” to ignore the Clean Water Act, rules making it tougher for employees to take family or medical leave, and rules that would effectively gut the Endangered Species Act.

Add that to Bush 43′s general policy of total war on…well, just about everyone, the administration’s position seems a little surprising, even if officials believe the pardon would be “tantamount to an admission that the Bush policies weren’t legal.”

Let’s assume they aren’t just offering up a smokescreen for the press, they’re not just throwing their subordinates to the mobs, and they don’t honestly believe their policies could stand up to a judicial challenge*. The only way this really makes sense is if they thought they wouldn’t be prosecuted. I think Obama will take steps to close Guantanamo, launch an investigation and prohibit torture, but resist the push for prosecuting Administration officials if at all possible, preferring any number of other pressing issues to a dogfight that could endanger his policy goals.

Links:
White House Is Disinclined to Grant Clemency to Officials Involved in Terror Policies (WSJ)
Midnight Hour (The NYer)
Related: Bush grants 14 pardons, two commutations (The Hill)

* This asterisk should be the size of the moon. There’s a good chance the coccoon is holding strong, and any of these could be true.