Month: October 2007

Denzel Washington on what the Bush-Cheney detention policy has done to America:

Jon Rauch sees much to admire in the newly responsible senator from Delaware:

While other Democrats talk Iraq, health care, and change, Biden talks Iraq, Iraq, and Iraq. At a press conference this month on the steps of Iowa’s Capitol in Des Moines, he seized the occasion of an endorsement by the state’s House majority leader to proclaim, "I know how to make America safer!"

He continued, "Immediately begin to draw down American combat troops…. Immediately give the troops all the protection they need while we’re drawing them down." So far, just like Clintama. But then he veered sharply off Hillarack. "Make sure you recognize a fundamental flaw in the strategy," he said, "and that is, there will not be a central government in Iraq, out of Baghdad, capable of governing that country in anyone’s lifetime standing out in front of this Capitol. You must change the policy to put in place a federal, decentralized Iraq, giving the warring factions breathing room to establish their own security [and] control over the fabric of their daily lives."

For a year and a half, Biden (along with Leslie H. Gelb, a former president of the Council on Foreign Relations) has advocated devolving power to autonomous regions in Iraq. The presidential campaign has brought the plan into sharper focus — and, as Biden argues, into sharper contrast with what he plausibly regards as the wishful thinking prevalent in both parties.

(Photo: Alex Wong/Getty.)

Beyond parody.

The right-wing blogosphere adores the faggot-baiting Coulter. Only Rush and Malkin are in her league.

A school district bends over backwards not to offend Muslims. This has to be South Park-bait.

Here’s a fascinating glimpse into the disarray among the theocons and Christianists at the prospect of a Giuliani candidacy. They’re contemplating a third-party challenge. Yay! Money quote:

The threat emerged from a group that broke away for separate discussions at a meeting Saturday in Salt Lake City of the Council for National Policy, a secretive conservative networking group. Participants said the smaller group included James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family, who is perhaps its most influential member; Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council; Richard A. Viguerie, the direct-mail pioneer; and dozens of other politically oriented conservative Christians.

Almost everyone present at the smaller group’s meeting expressed support for a written resolution stating that “if the Republican Party nominates a pro-abortion candidate we will consider running a third-party candidate,” participants said.

The participants said that the group chose the qualified term “consider” because it had not yet identified an alternative candidate, but that it was largely united in its plans to bolt the party if Mr. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, became the nominee.

They also seem to think time is running out to stop the front-runner, and if you check out the latest Gallup data on Republican support, you can see their point. The Christianists have suddenly given moderate Republicans an extra reason to vote for Rudy. If these religious fanatics can be forced out of the party at least temporarily, there’s a chance their influence can be restrained for longer. Of course this is not an easy choice. Giuliani is potentially dangerous to the survival of constitutional liberties in this country. Giuliani or Dobson? Who’s more dangerous to individual liberty? Discuss.

"Christopher Hitchens can be entertaining; that’s apparent in his work. But the statement above is a rant: you either agree with it absolutely 100 percent or you don’t. There’s no room for conversation here, no space for dialogue, no opportunity for mutual discovery, for actual learning. And that’s the stuff that causes us to engage intellectually, you might say makes us fully human," – R. Gustav Niebuhr, WaPo.

"All debate about the truth or falsity of a totalitarian dictator’s prediction is as weird as arguing with a potential murderer about whether his future victim is dead or alive-since by killing the person in question the murderer can promptly provide proof of the correctness of his statement. The only valid argument under such conditions is to promptly rescue the person whose death is predicted. Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of the man who can fabricate it. The assertion that the Moscow subway is the only one in the world is a lie only so long as the Bolsheviks have not the power to destroy it," – Hannah Arendt, Origins of Totalitarianism.

Los Angeles, California, 7.28 pm.

If you’re getting an award from the first president Bush, you’re not supposed to mention the torture policy that his son has instituted.