If I Write About It, I’ll Feel Better
I’m starting to notice a trend among far right bloggers. Instead of insisting that particular interrogation techniques like waterboarding are not torture, and that what the rest of the world calls torture is not torture at all but simply “aggressive interrogation,” bloggers on the right are starting to acknowledge — sometimes tacitly, sometimes outright — that torture is torture.
Sphere: Related ContentChristopher Hitchens Finds Out That Waterboarding Is Torture
We could have told him that, but he had to find out for himself:
Sphere: Related ContentLate last year, the writer, polemicist and fierce proponent of the US-led invasion of Iraq Christopher Hitchens attempted, in a piece for the online magazine Slate, to draw a distinction between what he called techniques of “extreme interrogation” and “outright torture”.
From this, his foes inferred that since it was Hitchens’ belief that America did not stoop to the latter, the practice of waterboarding - known to be perpetrated by US forces against certain “high-value clients” in Iraq and elsewhere - must fall under the former heading.
Enraged by what they saw as an exercise in elegant but offensive sophistry, some of the writer’s critics suggested that Hitchens give waterboarding (which may sound like some kind of fun aquatic pastime, but is probably best summarised as enforced partial drowning) a whirl, just to see what it was like. Did the experience feel like torture?
The Bush Legacy
The Bush legacy goes much deeper than the disastrous, ill-conceived, and abominably managed invasion and occupation of Iraq. Andrew Bacevich explores the war’s ideological underpinnings in a masterful essay published in today’s Boston Globe:
Sphere: Related ContentYou Know What They Say About Assumptions, Right?
Glenn Greenwald urges us to examine the “moving to the center” assumption:
What John McCain Meant, and Why It Doesn’t Matter
The story about John McCain telling a reporter for the Orange Country Register that he doesn’t remember the last time he pumped gas or what it cost is picking up velocity. Only now it turns out he does know. Via Patterico’s Pontifications by way of John Cole, McCain was quoted by Environment News Service, on June 18, as follows:
Sphere: Related ContentWingnuts Want Addington in the Witness Protection Program After Delahunt Joke
The right’s hypocrisy is on display again in its unhinged reaction to Rep. Delahunt’s attempt at humor on the House floor today:
Sphere: Related ContentPlenty of Insanity, Very Little Common Sense
The New York Times reports a surge of violence in Anbar province:
Obama: National Security Trumps Accountability for Telecoms
Turns out “Change You Can Believe In” is “Business As Usual You Can Bet On“:
Sphere: Related ContentAt a presser today, Obama weighed in again on the FISA cave, and suffice it to say that what he said won’t make opponents any less unhappy about Obama’s position than they were already.
Asked specifically why he’s supporting the current FISA bill when he’d promised months ago to support a filibuster of an earlier version of the bill, Obama suggested flat out that “national security” overrides the question of telecom immunity…
Don’t Bother Us With the Facts
The Environmental Protection Agency was directed by a 2007 Supreme Court ruling to find out whether greenhouse gases endangered public health and the environment. The EPA did that and issued its findings in an email to the White House. The White House refused to open the email:
Sphere: Related ContentA Slight Break From the Script
Joe Klein is having a quarrel with the folks over at Commentary: Klein is miffed by Max Boot’s reiteration of his boss John McCain’s 100-years-in-Iraq proposition, and Jennifer Rubin takes exception to Klein’s notion that right-wing Jewish supporters of Israeli military policy — like Joe Lieberman — pushed the invasion of Iraq because they believed destroying Iraq would be good for Israel, and that they favor war with Iran for the same reason.
Sphere: Related ContentRalph Nader Tells Obama He’s Doing Black Wrong
Fool:
Nader was asked if Obama is any different than Democrats he has criticized in the past, considering Obama’s pledge to reject campaign contributions from registered lobbyists.
“There’s only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He’s half African-American,” Nader said. “Whether that will make any difference, I don’t know. I haven’t heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What’s keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn’t want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We’ll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards.”
The Obama campaign had only a brief response, calling the remarks disappointing.
Asked to clarify whether he thought Obama does try to “talk white,” Nader said: “Of course.
“I mean, first of all, the number one thing that a black American politician aspiring to the presidency should be is to candidly describe the plight of the poor, especially in the inner cities and the rural areas, and have a very detailed platform about how the poor is going to be defended by the law, is going to be protected by the law, and is going to be liberated by the law,” Nader said. “Haven’t heard a thing.”
I must say, I find Nader’s eccentric use of grammar quite charming. And he’s got some interesting ideas for what a successful black presidential candidate should be doing. Perhaps, though, he would be better off trying to become a successful white presidential candidate. That’s challenge enough — for him.
Sphere: Related ContentChris Dodd Gives Hope To Constitution Advocates
I’m listening to the audio of Chris Dodd’s speech on the Senate floor last night about why immunity for telecoms is such a terrible idea. This is a take-no-prisoners speech. One of the best things Dodd does is tie together all the other constitutional crimes committed by the Bush administration, and he makes it clear they are not separate issues and should not be treated as if they were:
Sphere: Related ContentFeingold and Dodd Say They Will Filibuster If Immunity Stays in FISA Bill
Thank you, Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd, for showing some integrity and guts (emphasis in original):
Seinfeld on Carlin
Jerry Seinfeld has a poignant piece about George Carlin on the op-ed page of the New York Times today. It’s brief, and worth quoting in full:
Sphere: Related ContentTHE honest truth is, for a comedian, even death is just a premise to make jokes about. I know this because I was on the phone with George Carlin nine days ago and we were making some death jokes. We were talking about Tim Russert and Bo Diddley and George said: “I feel safe for a while. There will probably be a break before they come after the next one. I always like to fly on an airline right after they’ve had a crash. It improves your odds.”
I called him to compliment him on his most recent special on HBO. Seventy years old and he cranks out another hour of great new stuff. He was in a hotel room in Las Vegas getting ready for his show. He was a monster.
You could certainly say that George downright invented modern American stand-up comedy in many ways. Every comedian does a little George. I couldn’t even count the number of times I’ve been standing around with some comedians and someone talks about some idea for a joke and another comedian would say, “Carlin does it.” I’ve heard it my whole career: “Carlin does it,” “Carlin already did it,” “Carlin did it eight years ago.”
And he didn’t just “do” it. He worked over an idea like a diamond cutter with facets and angles and refractions of light. He made you sorry you ever thought you wanted to be a comedian. He was like a train hobo with a chicken bone. When he was done there was nothing left for anybody.
But his brilliance fathered dozens of great comedians. I personally never cared about “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” or “FM & AM.” To me, everything he did just had this gleaming wonderful precision and originality.
I became obsessed with him in the ’60s. As a kid it seemed like the whole world was funny because of George Carlin. His performing voice, even laced with profanity, always sounded as if he were trying to amuse a child. It was like the naughtiest, most fun grown-up you ever met was reading you a bedtime story.
I know George didn’t believe in heaven or hell. Like death, they were just more comedy premises. And it just makes me even sadder to think that when I reach my own end, whatever tumbling cataclysmic vortex of existence I’m spinning through, in that moment I will still have to think, “Carlin already did it.”
The Brooks Paradox
He is a Keyboarding Cabbage, declares the indispensable Barbara O’Brien (indispensable, not least of all because, feeling nauseous after reading Brooks’ column, I turned to Maha’s post and experienced the healing laughter):
David Brooks has a column in the New York Times today in which the Keyboarding Cabbage waxes philosophical about President Bush’s genius in ordering the surge, which as you know has accomplished its main goal of enabling the forging of a stable and sustainable government in Baghdad.
Oh, wait …
Barbara cites two articles — Derrick Jackson’s “Big Oil and the War in Iraq” and James Glanz’s “Government Study Criticizes Bush Administration’s Measures of Progress in Iraq” — as further evidence of the surge’s success.
Sphere: Related ContentHoyer and Pelosi To Their Base: You Should Thank Us for Screwing You
Nancy and Steny are making the rounds, visiting their friends in the media to get the word out on how fabulously clever they were to foil Republican election strategy by giving the right every unchecked power they wanted in a national surveillance bill.
Sphere: Related ContentAmerican Privilege
Part of the privilege that comes with being an American living in the United States is selective awareness. Nowhere is this more true than in Iraq, where media pundits and right-wing bloggers supportive of Bush’s war policies blithely superimpose their own template on that country with never a need to see Iraq through anyone’s eyes but their own.
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