Month: February 2010

Yglesias explains why inefficiencies are hard to fix:

When liberals see legislators—especially legislators they often have reason to like—taking this sort of indefensible position, they tend to immediately reach for the “corrupted by corporate cash” explanation of what’s going on. But I think that’s wrong. When you have a substantial inefficiency, you also have a whole bunch of people whose jobs depend on that inefficiency. That’s why it’s hard to treat coal the way we should and that’s why it’s hard to treat Sallie Mae the way we should. It’s also an important reason why “Medicare for All” isn’t really the political no-brainer that people sometimes claim it is—insurance companies employ tons of people, the vast majority of whom are not cackling and evil executives.

Stephen Walt offers some advice. On many issues in my entire career, I have lived on the third rail: gay conservatism, gay Catholicism, the end of the plague, race and IQ, torture and morality, testosterone and gender, sex and HIV, and now challenging the policies of the Israeli government in Washington. I agree with Walt on this point particularly:

The More Compelling Your Arguments Are, The Nastier the Attacks Will Be

Which brings me to an email I received half an hour ago, with the cheering subject title: "Keep up the good work, Andrew!" As I opened it – I'm not new at this and sensed what was coming – I found the real message within:

Please hurry up and die of AIDS.

A reader writes:

In discussing Thiessen's disgusting use of the Church to defend the Bush/Cheney torture regime, please revisit the case of Cardinal Mindszenty in Hungary. Mindszenty's treatment was in many respects identical to American enhanced interrogation techniques: hooding, humiliation (he was forced to wear a clown suit), drugging, sleep deprivation, etc.  Pius XII was so appalled by Mindszenty's torture that he wrote an apostolic letter – Acerrimo Moerore – condemning it. Pius went on to excommunicate those involved in the torture.  Mindszenty was beatified by John Paul and is being considered for canonization by Benedict.

It is moral relativism for National Review to condemn torture in one case (as they did with Mindszenty) and not with our current torture regime.  Where are the Catholics?

CatholicCulture.org has more on Mindszenty's detention and torture. National Review, alas, sold its soul to the Cheney machine and the theo-conservative Republican party project a long, long time ago.

I notice that the current Pope, in close league with American theocons like the late Neuhaus and George and Weigel, never uttered a word about torture in his meeting with president Bush. He has never specifically singled out the torture endorsed by his American political allies. He has found time to denounce airport body scans, however, because they invade and violate "the primacy of the human person.”

But this, directly authorized by president Bush, somehow slipped his notice:

(Death mask of Mindszenty from here)

A reader writes:

I am an attorney in New York City who grew up in Toronto. I also did a spell with the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands.

Like many of your readers, I strongly disagree with David Margolis's conclusions concerning referring Yoo and Bybee for sanctions. What is truly disgusting, however, is that his decision is being used to "vindicate" Yoo and Bybee.  Any attorney whose work is described as representing "a dark chapter in the history of the Office of Legal Counsel" and is accused of allowing "his own ideology and convictions . . . to cloud[] his view of his obligations to his client" has no business practicing law or teaching in an reputable university.  But beyond Yoo and Bybee, I am deeply dispirited by the message this sends about my profession. 

There are many fine lawyers who endeavor to properly and responsibility counsel their clients on matters that most would view as far less important than interrogation policy.  Many do so with far fewer resources and similar time constraints than those that faced Yoo.  (One of the interesting insights from the Margolis and OPR reports is that a junior attorney assisted with much of the drafting of the first two torture memos).   But because Yoo had extreme views to begin with, he will not be subjected to discipline for the ideological and slanted nonsense he produced while on the payroll of the American public.  Future administrations now have every incentive now to stack the Department of Justice with hardcore ideologues who will embolden the worst impulses of their political masters instead of providing sober and dispassionate analysis.

Needless to say, when I discuss Yoo and Bybee with attorneys from other countries, they view the existence of a debate about their professionalism as a disgrace in and of itself.  Reading Margolis's memorandum, one cannot escape the conclusion expressed by Jack Balkin that to be a member in good standing of the legal profession in the United States one need only moral standing that is a hair's breadth above your average mass murderer.  It is a very dark day for my profession.

An Oklahoma student sues the state for denying his license plate request.

Foreign Policy presents a photographic tour of 33 ongoing conflicts.

Mark Shea does a thought experiment:

Although she said that act was "inappropriate", she hopes that "now maybe people will listen." Charles Krauthammer has instructed us that if you have the "slightest belief" that torture will save a *single* life then you are morally bound to do it. Surely, there is at least the *chance* that this woman is linked to other extremists and terrorists. She was, after all, raised by an extremist and terrorist and she publically acclaims him as a hero…

In short, if this woman were Muslim, the Rubber Hose Right would be demanding that she be subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques in order to determine who else she may know who might be about to fly a plane into a building as an act of terrorism.

But because she's the white daughter of a home grown terrorist who looks and sounds like part of the right wing tribe of kooky "Patriot" types, she gets a pass, even while Marc Thiessen is seriously expecting that subjecting a low level lackey like the panty bomber to waterboarding for the sake of email addresses is going to accomplish something.

Make no mistake: part of what drives the push for torture is racism. Or, to put it another way, part of what keeps torture from being fully implemented in our culture is that those who advocate it would never dream of inflicting it on their own kind. It is for the Other.

Scott Horton looks at the appearance of rank corruption involved in some of the bizarre and legally preposterous defenses of torture explored in the OPR Report:

With Steven Bradbury, the OPR Report research provides useful information in the form of an email from Deputy Attorney General James Comey:

[Philbin] had previously reported that Steve [Bradbury] was getting constant similar pressure from Harriet Miers and David Addington to produce the opinions [authorizing torture techniques.] I have previously expressed my worry that having Steve as ‘Acting’—and wanting the job—would make him susceptible to just this kind of pressure.

Comey is referring to pressure coming from the White House for Bradbury to issue an opinion legalizing torture procedures. And Comey is unequivocal as to why Bradbury is willing to render the desired opinion—in order to secure a formal nomination as assistant attorney general in charge of OLC. In fact, almost immediately after Bradbury produced the memo, the White House okayed his name going forward for the appointment as an assistant attorney general.

Why am I not surprised? But what I really want to know is whether Trig has state health benefits. The last time we heard, he didn't because his birth certificate had not been sent to the relevant state agency over a month after the Palins claim he was born. Palin herself, of course, has publicly said that Trig's birth certificate had been publicly released:

Hey, you know, that’s a great point, in that weird conspiracy-theory freaky thing that people talk about that Trig isn’t my real son. And a lot of people say, “Well you need to produce his birth certificate! You need to prove that he’s your kid!” Which we have done.

This, of course, was another simple lie. And no one in the MSM ever pointed it out. Because most of their balls were surgically removed a very long time ago.