Archive
December 2, 2007 - December 8, 2007
Saturday, December 8, 200708 Dec 2007 07:58 pm WaPo Punts On Obama Rumor StoryA pretty sad and defensive column from the Post's ombudmsan. 08 Dec 2007 07:03 pm Face Of The Day
Bishara Ibraheim (3) receives treatment for an infected and broken leg at a clinic run by Doctors Without Borders December 8, 2007 in Birao in northern Central African Republic. Central African Republic (CAR) is one of the world's poorest and most neglected countries with an average life expectancy of 39 years old. Years of fighting various rebel factions in the north of the country have resulted in hundreds of deaths and over 200,000 internally displaced people. Outside of the capital Bangui there is no electricity or paved roads and banditry is extensive. By Spencer Platt/Getty Images. 08 Dec 2007 05:58 pm The Church and AIDSThe truth is that Christians have had a very mixed response to the AIDS epidemic. Some will have a great deal on their conscience; others have forged paths of compassion and commitment that are unequaled. It's depressing to read about Mike Huckabee's Southern Baptist hostility, ignorance and fear toward people with HIV as late as 1992. It's heart-breaking to have watched the black church look the other way for two decades as so many of its members needed help, candor, and compassion. But not everyone has behaved like this. I was praying about this today and Mychal Judge came into my mind, as he sometimes does. I think history will see him as a saint at some point. If you doubt that, I recommend Netflixing "Saint of 9/11", a documentary that stays with you for a long time. And in that documentary, the part that understandably gripped me most was his early response to gay men with AIDS:
This is the calling of the Christian in the face of a plague: engagement, love, compassion, help. Some lived up to it; some failed. But everyone can grow. 08 Dec 2007 04:39 pm The GOP, Huckabee and the GaysThis is depressing, if not actually surprising:
08 Dec 2007 03:37 pm Was This Photo Staged? Update
The question was raised in the Dish - in slightly facetious fashion - not as a way to suggest that Getty photographer, Charles Ommanney, did anything but take a picture, but just to suggest that Romney is not beyond a little posture plagiarism. The photo was, however, taken on April 11, 2007. There's no way this was anything but a coincidence. Just for the record. 08 Dec 2007 03:30 pm Huckabee and Homosexuality , HIV/AIDS"> , Homosexuality"> , Huckabee"> , Politics">
The revelations of his previous statements about gay people and people with AIDS are immensely depressing but should hardly be surprising. The views Huckabee held were much more common in 1992 than now - although even then, Huckabee's callous sentiments were irrational, outside any scientific consensus, ignorant for 1992, and clearly based on animus. I don't doubt he will distance himself from those early statements about HIV, just as even Jesse Helms did in his later years. But I wonder if Huckabee will be able to distance himself from the statements about gay people as such. Watching every Republican debate this year, you can see how no one ever dares take a position that could be deemed in any way supportive of gay people, understanding of the challenges many gay people face in a sometimes hostile world, let alone supportive of those of us constructing stable relationships. So this is perhaps a real opportunity for Huckabee, to express what a Christian really should express about the dignity and value of gay people, and about the moral necessity not to demonize or stigmatize those living with HIV or any illness. This culture and society has grown a lot on the issues of homosexuality and HIV in this past decade and a half. This is a chance for Huckabee to show that he has as well. It is a crisis for his campaign. But I hope he also sees that it is an opportunity for a statement of inclusion, compassion, and regret. 08 Dec 2007 09:55 am Huckabee's New Lead In Iowa , Politics"> , Romney">
Marc says it could be good for Mitt. 08 Dec 2007 08:03 am The View From Your Window
Bryant's Cove, Canada, 1.07 pm. Friday, December 7, 200707 Dec 2007 08:41 pm Krauthammer On FoxIt's refreshing, actually. I just listened to Charles say that the torture of terror suspects in 2002 was justified because the United States was flying blind and had no knowledge of what al Qaeda was planning. He won't say "torture", of course, although the law is clear that it is torture. (He and Fox News keep referring to the notion of "harsh interrogation techniques". I think they realized that the "enhanced interrogation techniques" was a little too close to the Gestapo's euphemism for comfort.) And he then I realize, of course, that that's the actual argument that Bush and Cheney make to themselves behind closed doors. I guess it's refreshing, if a little chilling, to hear a proud defense of lawlessness and violence at the heart of a constitutional republic on national television. But there are several critical and revealing premises behind it. The first is that the United States has effectively withdrawn from the Geneva Conventions. To say that the president can waive them at any time if he sees fit is to say that the United States is not bound by its treaty obligations. The second is that the president is not bound by any law or treaty governing the laws of warfare. Bush and Cheney won't say this because if they did, the jig would be up. The Constitution is extremely clear that the laws of warfare are determined by the Congress, not the president. So it's up to the Beltway Boys to defend the suspension of the rule of law and the legalization of torture as executive prerogatives, in violation of the Constitution. Hey: we're at war. The Constitution is now optional. Notice also that this isn't the ticking time bomb case that Charles has previously invoked to defend torture. There was no imminent threat to hundreds of thousands of people; we had no way of knowing for sure that Zubaydah had any knowledge of such a devastating threat; and we have no independent way of knowing whether the information he allegedly gave up under torture was factually accurate. And so in the initial cases of torture under this administration, we discover it was used simply because we had no good intelligence of future threats; and we decided to use torture for a fishing expedition. So much for the rare exception to the rule. The defenders of torture are always saying that it can be used "judiciously" and in extremely limited circumstances, that it can be controlled within the executive branch; that it need not metastasize into a So when you look at what torture has done already to the United States, we see that every bad scenario that those of us who oppose torture feared has actually come about. And we have no independent evidence that it has solved anything, or saved any lives, except the self-serving statements of those who authorized it. And the truth is: we will probably never know. If they are cynical and brazen enough to destroy incriminating tapes, they are cynical and brazen enough to destroy any evidence within the executive branch that could prove that their torture policy has failed. If this isn't a form of tyranny, annexed to torture, what is? And if the executive branch can simply get away with it, and have serious commentators defend the president's trashing of the Constitution as necessary to fulfill his oath of office, we really have left the rule of law behind in the ditch. 07 Dec 2007 07:11 pm Quote For The Day"I am astonished. But am I surprised, no," - Senator John McCain upon hearing of the CIA's decision to destroy tapes of the torture of two terror suspects. 07 Dec 2007 06:49 pm The Art Of The Toilet , Toilet Humor">
The rather fetching craft of one Tuesday Cohen. 07 Dec 2007 06:01 pm A Real SportsmanLet's hear it for Brett Favre, the hottest Make-A-Wish-Foundation honoree in a long time. SI has just honored him as well. There are some asshole pro athletes out there; and some heroes. Favre is one of the latter. 07 Dec 2007 05:45 pm "Goodbye To All That" , Campaign 2008"> , Obama">
A reader writes:
07 Dec 2007 05:22 pm What's Wrong With The Clinton Campaign , Clinton">
An Iowa past state Democratic party chair writes:
Continue reading "What's Wrong With The Clinton Campaign" » 07 Dec 2007 04:53 pm Correction of The Day"An article in Business Day on Friday about favorite gadgets of executives referred incorrectly to the video game Gran Turismo 5. It has not yet been released, and thus is not a best-selling game. The article also referred imprecisely to the game Halo 3. It is the first game in the Halo series designed for the Xbox 360; the earlier games, though playable on the Xbox 360, were designed for the original Xbox. The chip in the Xbox 360 also was misidentified. It has a Xenon chip, not a Cell processor. And the article also misstated the price of the Sony PlayStation 3. The PlayStation 3 starts at $399, not $299," - New York Times, December 4, 2007. Three cheers for the MSM. Hat tip: CJR. 07 Dec 2007 04:34 pm Burma's CrackdownFar worse than we originally thought, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch. 07 Dec 2007 04:11 pm Banana Republic Update , Executive Power"> , Law and Government"> , Political Scandals"> , Torture">
Hot Air does something really quite spectacular, even by far-right blog standards - they're blaming John McCain for the CIA's destruction of evidence of war-crimes. They don't
So will the president. 07 Dec 2007 03:57 pm The View From Your Window
Lawrence, Kansas, 12 pm. 07 Dec 2007 03:48 pm Hitch On Mitt , Romney">
A particularly polished paragraph:
Even when one disagrees with Hitch, I find it all but impossible not to enjoy reading him. 07 Dec 2007 03:27 pm It Keeps Getting Worse , Political Scandals"> , Torture">
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is unloading what he found after being granted access to various Bush Office Of Legal Counsel opinions. Every time you think you're hallucinating about the powers this president has accrued to himself, you come across a reality more surreal:
Richard Milhous Bush. And the evidence suggests Mukasey may have a bruising non-honeymoon as AG. I'm also hearing rumors that the obstruction of justice in the CIA tape=destruction case may be even more clear-cut than we previously thought. 07 Dec 2007 03:16 pm Quip For The Day , Foreign Policy"> , Huckabee">
"Mike Huckabee promises us a foreign policy that will make sure that America repeatedly bursts into flame for all of eternity," - Daniel Larison. 07 Dec 2007 03:04 pm Harman Update , Torture">
Her office emails:
Here's the corrected AP story. 07 Dec 2007 03:03 pm And So It Dawns On Some Democrats ... , Clinton"> , Democrats">
07 Dec 2007 02:34 pm Face Of The Day
A relative cries for a victim killed in an explosion at the Xinyao Colliery December 7, 2007 in Hongdong County of Shanxi Province, northern China. According to state media, at least 104 miners were killed in a gas blast at the coal mine on December 5. Rescue and further investigation is underway. By China Photos/Getty Images. 07 Dec 2007 02:14 pm Yglesias Award Nominee III"For years, many of us have been in awe of the Clintons, really in awe: a little scared and a little admiring. But the spell finally broke in the past couple of weeks, when both halves of the couple looked a little ridiculous, and a little desperate. She, tone-deaf as so often (did she not talk about one-night stands with her middle-aged rural audience this week?), went for her version of the jugular, Obama's musings as a 5-year-old. Her husband, a practiced liar, tried to get away with the biggest lie he could think of: that he had always opposed the war in Iraq. After the hundreds of polls, focus groups, and various analyses they and others have paid for, surely the Clintons know by now that their Achilles' heel is their unbearable prevarication. It goes to show how deeply embedded this deceptiveness is that these two smart, accomplished actors are simply unable to even pretend to be honest," - Paul Jenkins, HuffPuff. Is this the 2007 Yglesias Award winner? Don't Forget To Vote Here!07 Dec 2007 01:57 pm A Guide To Healthy BloggingStretch, sleep and take time away from the laptop. Pretty basic stuff. But what to do when, as now seems the case with yours truly, you're battling the flu in the middle of a presidential campaign? 07 Dec 2007 01:45 pm Quote For The Day"Unfortunately, millions of Muslims all over the globe are humiliated and betrayed by the ignorance and lack of basic humanity that a small minority of Muslims too often exhibits. Should I, however, bring this up with many of my Muslim brothers and sisters a common response is: "It's true, but look at what the West is doing to Muslims; 800,000 thousand dead in Iraq. And what about Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya and the rest? Why don't Western people denounce these atrocities against us and only harp about how backward we are?" A famous Iraqi poet once wrote, "If one person is harmed it is an unpardonable sin, but a whole people's destruction is something to debate." Unfortunately, these Western horrors against the Muslims demand responses, but Muslims must also recognize and denounce these wrongs too often associated with our Prophet and our faith without always pointing fingers elsewhere," - Hamza Yusuf, Newsweek. 07 Dec 2007 01:24 pm Expressing The Culture Of Life , McCain">
A poignant McCain moment. 07 Dec 2007 01:08 pm The Bitter Mormon Truth , Religion">
South Park always helps: But this YouTube is scary. 07 Dec 2007 12:54 pm The General And The Veep , Iraq"> , Military"> , Politics"> , War">
“There’s nobody in uniform who is doing victory dances in the end zone. Success in Iraq is not akin ... to flipping on a light switch. Rather it emerges slowly and fitfully with reverses as well as advances. There will inevitably still be tough days and perhaps tough weeks ahead, but fewer of them over time, inshallah," - General David Petraeus. "We have in fact achieved our objective in terms of having a self-governing Iraq that’s capable for the most part of defending themselves, a democracy in the heart of the Middle East, a nation that will be a positive force in influencing the world around it in the future," - vice president Dick Cheney, predicting the state of affairs in Iraq by mid-January 2009. 07 Dec 2007 12:36 pm NRO Fabulist Update , Political Scandals">
W. Thomas Smith Jr quits the publication:
Continue reading "NRO Fabulist Update" » 07 Dec 2007 12:19 pm Yglesias Award Nominee II"It’s not so much that I disagree — there was nothing objectionable in the speech and it’s bound to bring a few fencesitters over to Mitt’s side — but insisting repeatedly upon its success as an objective fact is a weird rhetorical ploy which reads like a transparent attempt to delegitimize critics as being, in an almost clinical sense, out of touch with reality. Why not just say, “With Rush, Hannity, and Mark Steyn swooning, early indicators are that Mitt’s speech is a smash”? Of all the people commenting today about this, there’s only one who sounds like he’s coming unglued. And it ain’t any of Mitt’s critics," - Allahpundit on the strange convulsions of Hugh Hewitt. 07 Dec 2007 12:15 pm The AwardsI've been doling out quite a few recently. A guide to which means which - for Dish newbies - can be found here. 07 Dec 2007 11:50 am The Guilty Men , Politics"> , Torture">
Scott Horton puts it simply:
This is Mukasey's moment. He needs to find who authorized this and prosecute them. And if the president authorized it, obstruction of justice in the case of war crimes is obviously an impeachable offense. 07 Dec 2007 11:46 am The Torture Advocate Behind The CIA Tape Destruction , Torture">
Ladies and gentlemen, meet another war criminal at the heart of the Bush administration: John Rizzo. 07 Dec 2007 11:31 am Don't Look Now ... , Political Scandals"> , Pop Culture">
... but Brad Pitt is in the next stall: 07 Dec 2007 11:20 am Pusillanimous Harman , Political Scandals"> , Politics"> , Torture">
What the hell was Jane Harman doing? From the AP:
A leading Democrat is told that the CIA is destroying evidence of its own war crimes and says and does nothing? They really are a pathetic bunch. Greenwald feels the same way. 07 Dec 2007 11:13 am Yglesias Award Nominee"Frankly, the timing stinks. The tapes sat unmolested in a vault for at least two years without the CIA worrying about the potential damage from a leak. The Inspector General had long since concluded that the interrogations did not break the law. However, as soon as Congress began debating the specific interrogation technique that the tapes depicted, someone decided that they represented a danger to the agents. It looks a lot more like destroying evidence than tightening security. Hayden will spend the next few weeks explaining this to Congress. Instead, Congress should be talking with the people in charge of the CIA in 2005 to find out who gave the order to destroy the tapes, and why," - Ed Morrissey, Captain Quarters. Is this the 2007 Yglesias Award winner? Don't Forget To Vote Here!07 Dec 2007 11:11 am Romney Camp: No Comment On Atheists , Romney">
Uh-oh. And some actually thought this was an oversight. Who are they kidding apart from themselves? 07 Dec 2007 10:33 am Another Possibility , Torture">
Were the torture tapes destroyed to prevent evidence emerging of a royal Saudi connection to 9/11? 07 Dec 2007 10:23 am Is The Dam Breaking? , Politics"> , Torture">
The latest evidence of brazen destruction of critical evidence of illegal activity by the CIA seems to have provoked even the most die-hard of Bush supporters into something like reality. To Malkin, I am part of the "unhinged left". But even she has to concede:
Rick Moran expresses what many on the center-right privately feel:
Moran wants to junk the Geneva Conventions - but even he sees that, whatever your view of them, they are still the law of the land, and destruction of evidence that they have been broken is a function of a government that regards itself as above the law. And Moran also understands that the law is crystal-clear:
James Joyner notes:
Insta-silence, of course. Glibertarians don't care about the government torturing people and destroying the evidence. And despite page one treatment across the planet, crickets chirp at the Corner. 07 Dec 2007 10:10 am Clinton In Iowa , Clinton">
This can't be encouraging:
07 Dec 2007 10:07 am The Key Point , Religion"> , Romney">
David zeroes in:
07 Dec 2007 09:50 am The One And Original, Ctd. , History"> , Religion">
A reader writes:
07 Dec 2007 09:37 am Hewitt Hathos UpdateIt's a good day:
07 Dec 2007 09:29 am The Torture Tapes , Political Scandals"> , Politics"> , Torture">
My take on the CIA's destruction of potential evidence of war crimes here and here. 07 Dec 2007 09:16 am The View From Your Window
Chicago, Illinois, 9.30 pm. 07 Dec 2007 08:45 am Americanism As A Religion , Religion"> , Romney">
It is, of course, one way to think of Mormonism, but this observation struck me as worthwhile:
And the non-religious are therefore somehow un-American or irrelevant to America. 07 Dec 2007 08:12 am Refreshing Fred , Politics"> , Religion"> , Republicans">
After a religion-soaked day yesterday, it was a relief to read this:
Please stay the way you are, Fred. 07 Dec 2007 07:27 am Gay Culture In Boston , Homosexuality">
The old clubs may be dying, but a new one is being born:
Yep: gay hip-hop. Love it. Bob Mould's and Rich Morel's "BlowOff" in DC (and occasionally in NYC) has also charted new ground by appealing to bears and mixing rock and pop. But my sense is that we will soon witness an eruption of openly gay culture within the black and Latino populations. Repressed for so long, and still less public than white gay culture, minority gay culture, already vibrant, may achieve greater visibility. I sure hope so. We desperately need strong public gay role models for black and Latino gay kids, who deal with stress and discrimination many of us white guys no longer experience in quite the same way.
December 2, 2007 - December 8, 2007
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