Literally and metaphorically. It has officially been One of Those Weeks, for about two weeks now. Early next week the birthday hits, and I think lightness of posting will continue at least until then.

Anybody have an extra ticket to one of the U2 shows in the upper Northeast corridor--New York to Boston, say? Spring or Fall, doesn't matter. Happy to pay face value, just don't want to deal with scalpers.

Last summer at the Democratic convention I shared a cab with Jason Bateman on the way to some party after we'd both done Air America bits. Neither of us had any idea who the other was, which led him to riff on the moment of recognition we would each eventually have when we realized, oh, it's that guy. Somehow group hugs were invoked, if I'm remembering correctly. I guess you had to be there.

Well, I have no idea if Jason Bateman has to this day ever seen a Tom Tomorrow cartoon, but Jason, if you're out there, I've had my moment of realization.

I'm always incredibly reluctant to add anything new to the short list of tv shows I watch on a regular basis, but at the suggestion of my very smart wife, I finally gave Arrested Development a try, and it really is one of the most brilliant shows on the air right now. If you're not watching it, you're missing a show of sublime absurdity.

Sharp catch from blogger Mark Kraft:

The ACLU today released a memo signed by Lieutenant General Ricardo A. Sanchez authorizing 29 interrogation techniques, including 12 which far exceeded limits established by the Army’s own Field Manual. More specifically, it points out that Gen. Sanchez committed purjury when testifying before Congress.

From Sanchez' testimony of May 19, 2004:

U.S. SENATOR JACK REED (D-RI): General Sanchez, today's USA Today, sir, reported that you ordered or approved the use of sleep deprivation, intimidation by guard dogs, excessive noise and inducing fear as an interrogation method for a prisoner in Abu Ghraib prison. Is that correct?

SANCHEZ: Sir, that may be correct that it's in a news article, but I never approved any of those measures to be used within CJTF-7 at any time in the last year.

That is absolutely refuted by the newly released memo, which says:

Presence of Military Working Dog: Exploits Arab fear of dogs ...
Sleep Management: Detainee provided minimum of 4 hours sleep per 24 hour period, not to exceed 72 continuous hours.
Yelling, Loud Music, and Light Control: Used to create fear... (Sanchez's wording, not mine.)

Sanchez is clearly guilty of perjury, and should face the wrath of Congress... and the Senate should determine the guilt of his boss, Donald Rumsfeld, while they're at it.

From the Times:

WASHINGTON, March 29 - Maher Arar, a 35-year-old Canadian engineer, is suing the United States, saying American officials grabbed him in 2002 as he changed planes in New York and transported him to Syria where, he says, he was held for 10 months in a dank, tiny cell and brutally beaten with a metal cable.

Now federal aviation records examined by The New York Times appear to corroborate Mr. Arar's account of his flight, during which, he says, he sat chained on the leather seats of a luxury executive jet as his American guards watched movies and ignored his protests.

The tale of Mr. Arar, the subject of a yearlong inquiry by the Canadian government, is perhaps the best documented of a number of cases since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in which suspects have accused the United States of secretly delivering them to other countries for interrogation under torture. Deportation for interrogation abroad is known as rendition.

...to those of you who've sent items from the wish list lately. New books, new tunes, new movies...life is good...

Now if only I had a little free time...

A reader forwards my Wu-Name: Bitter Observer.

Right wingers are clutching at straws, claiming that the Schiavo strategy memo must be a fake. Their proof, as far as I can tell, is that the journalists involved have declined to burn their sources, no matter how hard the right-wing bloggers stamp their little feet.

Suddenly this week's cartoon is unintentionally timely, particularly the fifth panel.

...whoops--this week's cartoon hasn't actually been posted at Salon yet, for reasons unknown to me (something to do with Easter, maybe?). Oh well--you'll just have to trust me on this until it shows up.

Sgt. John J. Savage III, an Army reservist, was about to climb onto a troop transport plane for a flight to Iraq from Fayetteville, N.C., when his wife called with alarming news: "They're foreclosing on our house."

Sergeant Savage recalled, "There was not a thing I could do; I had to jump on the plane and boil for 22 hours."

He had reason to be angry. A longstanding federal law strictly limits the ability of his mortgage company and other lenders to foreclose against active-duty service members.

But Sergeant Savage's experience was not unusual. Though statistics are scarce, court records and interviews with military and civilian lawyers suggest that Americans heading off to war are sometimes facing distracting and demoralizing demands from financial companies trying to collect on obligations that, by law, they cannot enforce.

Some cases involve nationally prominent companies like Wells Fargo and Citigroup, though both say they are committed to strict compliance with the law.

The problem, most military law specialists say, is that too many lenders, debt collectors, landlords, lawyers and judges are unaware of the federal statute or do not fully understand it.

The law, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, protects all active-duty military families from foreclosures, evictions and other financial consequences of military service. The Supreme Court has ruled that its provisions must "be liberally construed to protect those who have been obliged to drop their own affairs to take up the burdens of the nation."

Yet the relief act has not seemed to work in recent cases like these:

¶At Fort Hood, Tex., a soldier's wife was sued by a creditor trying to collect a debt owed by her and her husband, who was serving in Baghdad at the time. A local judge ruled against her, saying she had defaulted, even though specialists say the relief act forbids default judgments against soldiers serving overseas and protects their spouses as well.

¶At Camp Pendleton, Calif., more than a dozen marines returned from Iraq to find that their cars and other possessions had been improperly sold to cover unpaid storage and towing fees. The law forbids such seizures without a court order.

¶In northern Ohio, Wells Fargo served a young Army couple with foreclosure papers despite the wife's repeated efforts to negotiate new repayment terms with the bank. Wells Fargo said later that it had been unaware of the couple's military status. The foreclosure was dropped after a military lawyer intervened.

Story.