A Mile Wide, An Inch Deep

I was handcuffed at my home and driven to a processing station at the county “Justice Center.” Officers stood me against the wall and patted me down for contraband, checking my pockets, stripping off my socks, pulling out the insoles of my shoes.   Other officers emptied my bag and wallet of their belongings, took my ring and hairclip from me, and wrestled my tennis shoes free from their laces, putting everything they had collected into a sealed plastic bag. Occasionally they asked me about this or that they had found among my things: looking at my business cards, “Do you know anyone famous?”, or at the Kerry and Obama stickers that adorn my little makeshift Metro card case, “Are you a Democrat or a Republican? Because if you’re a Republican, I can take you to see the commissioner right away.” They were joking and generally amused. I was sobbing and shaking. This was the worst day of my life but just another work day in theirs, just another tawdry soap opera of thousands they

Fiscal Cliff Deal Late last night (or rather, early this morning) the Senate passed a White House-negotiated deal to avert and postpone, respectively, key parts of the fiscal cliff. The 89-8 vote (opposed by Democrats Michael Bennet of Colorado, Thomas R. Carper of Delaware, and Tom Harkin of Iowa, and by Republicans Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Richard C. Shelby of Alabama (with absences from Mark Kirk of Illinois, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, and Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who's on his way out to head the Heritage Foundation) sends the legislation to the House where Speaker John Boehner has been huddling with his leadership team about how and when to bring the bill to the House floor. There's been some discussion that the House might amend and send it back to the Senate, but my money is on the House grudgingly taking up the Senate package as-is (perhaps with some kind of procedural mechanism that helps