47 Senators Violate Logan Act

Is there something significant about the number 47? That's the same number Mitt Romney used to describe the percentage of Americans who weren't going to vote for him. Just sayin'.

Those curious about US law may have learned that the 47 Republican senators signing the letter to officials of Iran appear to have violated the Logan Act and be subject to 3 years in prison.

So who was Logan and why was the Act passed? Here's a good summary of the history of the Act. And it is a long history.

In 1798 a certain American citizen named Logan travelled to France and worked to improve US - French relations and to free Americans captured by France during the Quasi-War. Logan was a follower of Thomas Jefferson (of the Democratic-Republican party). President Adams, of the Federalist Party, was outraged.  This was not just about Constitutional prerogatives - Adams sought improved relations with Great Britain while Jefferson sought improved relations with France.

So much for the idea that "politics stops at the water's edge."

It never did.

In more than two centuries, there has never been a prosecution under the Logan Act, though there have been some close calls.

Powerful Words

In yesterday' Atlantic, James Fallows pays tribute to President Obama's words on the Pettus Bridge at Selma.

None of us can add to the President's eloquence and wisdom, but Fallows helps us fit the passages into our own hopes and dreams: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/03/finally-i-hear-a-politician-explain-my-country-the-way-i-understand-it/387178/

There were, in the President's words, echoes of Lincoln. And of Jefferson - and of those who cobbled together a rickety Constitution to hold together a great nation whose citizens often didn't like each other much. But no matter.

We can overcome our divisions and do great things together - and have done so, on occasion.

We are not perfect - or even close, but we can become more perfect if we so choose.

I was also reminded in the President's words of the voice and vision of a great poet who celebrated

"the American muse, whose strong and diverse heart
So many men have tried to understand
But only made it smaller with their art,
Because you are as various as your land,"

Don't take my word for it, read John Vincent Benet's epic poem John Brown's Body  for yourself:
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700461.txt

Yankee Station And Selma

Fifty years ago, my ship was boring holes in the South China Sea, firing projectiles into the jungles of South Vietnam at targets we couldn't see - some nine miles away. It was hard and challenging work and our sailors did it well, but in the end it had little effect.

Meanwhile, brave Americans marched to Selma, stood up for freedom in Greensboro, marched in Memphis, and changed America for the better. These were real patriots and I salute them.

And so did President Obama:  http://www.vox.com/2015/3/7/8168085/president-obama-selma-50

Nemtsov Memorial March

I was glad to see photos of crowds marching in Moscow in honor of Boris Nemtsov.

This march really took more courage than the "Je suis Charlie" demonstrations in France. Supporters of Nemtsov could be in real danger from the Russian state.

Good for them.

Putin Opponent Slain

When I read about the shooting death of Boris Nemtsov, a critic of Putin, on the streets of Moscow, it reminded me of the 1934 assassination of Sergei Kirov.

Kirov was a rising star in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, playing a significant role at the 17th Party Congress in 1934.

Since 1926, Kirov had headed the Leningrad Communist Party. At the 1934 Congress, Kirov received more positive votes than Stalin. That may have been his downfall. Stalin asked Kirov, who was becoming increasingly popular within the party, to come work for him in Moscow. But Stalin kept Kirov in Leningrad for 9 more months.

On December 1, 1934, an expelled party member named Leonid Nikolayev entered the Party headquarters at the Smolny Institute, waited in the hall for Kirov, and shot him down.

Stalin led that investigation, just as Putin is leading this one.

Stalin used the assassination as an excuse to round up all of his own opponents within the party. Few of them survived the subsequent purges.

A word to the wise for Nemtsov suppoters - it might be well to go into hiding.

Cox v Town Of Oriental

Quick update. Last week, I sent a letter to the Town Commissioners explaining my view of the law that applies and where things stand. I also outlined a possible resolution. I sent a more detailed letter to the Town's attorney. I expect they will go into closed session tonight to discuss it.

On Changing One's Mind

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

John Maynard Keynes

 

Mohandas K. Gandhi often changed his mind publicly. An aide once asked him how he could so freely contradict this week what he had said just last week. The great man replied that it was because this week he knew better.

Lamentations Of A Staff Officer (With Apologies To T.S. Eliot)

"No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,	115
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool."