Month: October 2007

Giuliani Makes Light Of Soviet Torture

The ignorance of Rudy Giuliani with respect to the history of torture is almost on a level with his ignorance about Islam and the Middle East. Yesterday, he made this comment:

They talk about sleep deprivation. I mean, on that theory, I’m getting tortured running for president of the United States. That’s plain silly. That’s silly.

Really? Has Giuliani ever inquired about the history of sustained sleep deprivation as a torture technique? Stalin perfected it. And one of its victims was Menachem Begin, a man for whom presumably Giuliani has some respect. Begin was subjected to the same techniques that Bush has used by Joseph Stalin in the Gulag. In Begin’s view, being forced – not choosing – to stay awake for days and even weeks on end (as Rumsfeld approved in Gitmo) is one of the worst forms of torture there is. He described just such a torture victim who is

"wearied to death, his legs are unsteady, and he has one sole desire to sleep, to sleep just a little, not to get up, to lie, to rest, to forget … Anyone who has experienced the desire knows that not even hunger or thirst are comparable it with it."

Do you think that starving someone until they tell you what you want them to say is torture? Do you believe that objecting to such torture techniques is "plain silly"?

Email From The Base

This, I fear, is what the GOP base really feels on how Mukasey should respond to the Senator’s letter on torture and waterboarding:

The correct answer is:

"Our interrogation techniques are classified, and I will not discuss them with you, since you treasonous bastards will immediately leak them to the Times and they will published forthwith, diminishing their effectiveness since the enemy will know what to expect".

The Islamofacists are irregulars. They should be interrogated any way which is effective (experimentation to discover which methods are most effective are highly encouraged) and shot promptly thereafter. If they suffer psychologically it won’t be for long.

The Clitoris vs The Theocons

"Pregnancy removes the female from reproductive sex for long periods of time. The primary source of sexual pleasure, the clitoris, is also biologically removed from the act of procreation. A man can successfully impregnate a woman without ever stimulating her clitoris or giving her sexual pleasure. A man can Tcs2 successfully impregnate a woman by raping her. The very existence of the clitoris is therefore a living rebuke to those who argue that nature itself – the way our bodies have been constructed – dictates a certain and necessarily procreative sexual morality.

What is the proper use of the clitoris? It plays no essential role in actual procreation, and yet is the prime source of female sexual pleasure. If this isn’t an indication that nature allows for sex purely as pleasure or as a pleasurable way to intensify and deepen an emotional bond, then what is? Or to take a second example. All women eventually stop menstruating. On average, they live longer lives than men, and so whole swathes of their lives entail, as a function of biology, that their sex lives will be consciously and unavoidably non-reproductive. If natural law is premised on a commonsensical inference from nature, then how on earth can it be construed not merely to argue that procreation is the sine qua non of sex, but that everything else is anathema?" – Chapter Two, The Conservative Soul, now out in paperback.

The Coming Ron Paul Media Blast

The NYT has the details: an upcoming $1.1 million ad blast in New Hampshire over the next six weeks. Of course, when you’re a candidate like Paul, grassroots organizers have already been independently financing ads for you. Here’s another one. Another independent group ThisNovember5th is a fundraising site. Over 10,000 people have signed up in less than a month. Watch Paul file in New Hampshire here. There are two reasons for his remarkable success so far: the Internet and the growing sense that this imperial presidency needs to be brought back to the vision of the Founders – both domestically and abroad. We have over-reached. He has the newest and the oldest campaign message there is: freedom matters. It is no surprise to me that the GOP establishment – now one of the most powerful forces against individual freedom in this country – is so panicked by his message. They should be.

A $2.4 Trillion War

You’re not hallucinating. I doubt if George W. Bush himself ever dreamed of spending so much of other people’s money:

According to the CBO’S report, the country has spent $604 billion since 2001. The total amount of money requested for 2008 alone is up to $196 billion, nearly a quarter of what’s been spent over the past five years. At that rate, we’ll sail past $2 trillion by 2014. And that’s not counting interest.

CBO analysis (PDF) here.