Month: August 2008

The latest from Gitmo: a display of the upright coffins that violent prisoners are now being kept in. The use of extremely restrictive boxes to torture prisoners is, of course, well documented. Abu Zubayda was put in a "tiny coffin". From "The Dark Side":

Zubayda’s "hard time" began when he was locked into the "tiny coffin" for hours on end, which he described as excruciatingly painful. It was too small for him to stand or stretch out, so small he said he had to double up his limbs in a fetal position. Because of his recently healed injuries, he described this position as particularly agonizing, since it caused his wounds to repoen … A source familiar with Zubayda’s account described the tiny coffin box as "unbearable, most terrible." Article 21 of the Third Geneva Convention – which applies to all prisoners of war – specifically prohibits such forms of cruelty, which are classified as "close confinement."

Not so long ago, the Bush-Cheney thugs denied they were violating the Geneva Conventions. Now they’re bragging about it. It is important to note that there have been no reliable procedures to determine the guilt or innocence of many sequestered at Guantanamo Bay and the Bush administration has conceded that many were innocent of anything. Remind me: if a cab driver can be convicted of war crimes, why can’t the president who authorized torture? Meanwhile, Bush is in China referring to human rights abuses. The rest of the world laughs at him. They know what America now stands for.

(Photo: one of the larger windowless boxes in which prisoners are isolated. The Pentagon has not released pictures of those that are merely 3 feet by 3 feet by 6 feet.)

"So Obama will be jetting off to Geneva, Switzerland to hob nob with the expats and raise a bundle of cash with the help of George Clooney. I guess that’s what citizens of the world do. The Obama-Clooney-Pelosi-Marie Antoinette Democrats intend to maintain their lifestyles even as ordinary voters forfeit theirs at the pump and via massive government regulation," – Hugh Hewitt. For the record, Obama isn’t going to Switzerland.

Tyler Cowen unloads opaquely:

I read many blogs but there is only one — of the two or three hundred I have sampled — which I find truly obnoxious.  I find the content obnoxious and I find the style obnoxious and I find the blogger obnoxious.

But he won’t say which it is. Doesn’t stop the commenters from guessing, though.

The economy and Iraq are Obama’s strongest areas:

The two issues that voters felt personally were most important to them were the  economy and creating jobs (24%), and dealing with the war in Iraq (12%). On these issues Senator Obama had large leads. On the economy, Obama led Senator McCain by a 62% to 20% margin. On dealing with the war in Iraq his lead was 66% to 22%. Another issue that was frequently mentioned was  improving education, where Senator Obama’s lead was 73% to 10%.

"The fact that we have a smart show with nothing that caustic or harsh is a miracle. To talk about what I want to do to Condoleezza Rice sexually without saying something really, really anatomical — that takes a lot of doing," – Alec Baldwin. (Hat tip: Chris.)

Relax – no real side-effects in moderation and considerable benefits:

Recent disease-related findings can only add to coffee’s popularity. A review of 13 studies found that people who drank caffeinated coffee, but not decaf, had a 30 percent lower risk of Parkinson’s disease.

Another review found that compared with noncoffee drinkers, people who drank four to six cups of coffee a day, with or without caffeine, had a 28 percent lower risk of Type 2 diabetes.   This   benefit probably comes from coffee’s antioxidants and chlorogenic acid.

The implosion of the Bush-McCain position in Iraq – that any firm commitment to a deadline for withdrawal is the equivalent of "surrender" – is being put under an even stronger spotlight:

The proposed agreement calls for Americans to hand over parts of Baghdad’s Green Zone – where the U.S. Embassy is located – to the Iraqis by the end of 2008. It would also remove U.S. forces from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009, according to the two senior officials, both close to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and familiar with the negotiations.

 

The officials, who spoke separately on condition of anonymity because the talks are ongoing, said all U.S. combat troops would leave Iraq by October 2010, with the remaining support personnel gone "around 2013." The schedule could be amended if both sides agree – a face-saving escape clause that would extend the presence of U.S. forces if security conditions warrant it.

The escape clause makes a small difference. But it’s a great thing that the Iraqis themselves are forcing the issue of departure of all troops. The imperial faction in Washington would never have done it voluntarily; now their bluff is being called. If McCain had not been engaged in silly Rovian tactics against Obama on Iraq, he could have run as the man who can get us out of Iraq, because the surge has made such a strategy less perilous than it might have been. To link the surge to success and to withdrawal would been a brilliant pro-war anti-war strategy. But Bush and McCain blew it.

A reader writes:

You know that little gimmick you mentioned that peruses your browsing history to figure out your male/female ratio?

An interesting irony of it is that the highest ratios you can get are from gay websites (adam4adam is 4.13 as a commenter points out) which ironically means that, in that world, a lot of gay men get a 100% while most heterosexual male get at least something like a 10% female side.

Political blogs are also skewed pointedly male:

My highest male score came on RealClearPolitics, whose ratio of male to female users is 1.82. Close behind that was Politico, with a ratio of 1.7. And that doesn’t seem so surprising until you realize that both figures are significantly higher than the ratio at mlb.com. Mlb.com is the site for Major League Baseball, where I follow the Red Sox. The ratio there is just 1.33. I’m not saying girls and women can’t like baseball, naturally. But it goes to show you just how male-dominated our political conversation remains, even today. (And, no, I don’t think that’s a terribly good thing.)

That’s Philip Geraldi’s take. Tim F. worries that possible errors in Suskind’s reporting will undermine the deeper truth of what he’s pointing out. The good news is that the question can now be examined some more and the facts slowly flushed out.