Category: Old Dish

Maybe he didn’t mean to. But here’s a fascinating nugget culled by the Washington Post:

Clinton’s own legal battle with independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr accounts for one of the book’s more peculiar revelations. In his August 1998 grand jury testimony, Clinton said he began an inappropriate sexual relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky in “early 1996.” His testimony, as was widely noted at the time, was in conflict with Lewinsky’s story: She testified the relationship began on Nov. 15, 1995, in the midst of a government shutdown.
Starr’s prosecutors, in their report to Congress, accused Clinton of lying about the date of their relationship in order to avoid admitting that he had sexual relations with an intern, as Lewinsky still was in the fall of 1995 before being hired for a paying job in the winter.
Without explanation, in his memoir Clinton departs from his grand jury testimony and corroborates her version: “During the government shutdown in late 1995, when very few people were allowed to come to work in the White House, and those who were there were working late, I’d had an inappropriate encounter with Monica Lewinsky and would do so again on other occasions between November and April, when she left the White House for the Pentagon.”

So he lied under oath. By his own admission. Does he take responsibility? Nah.

Here’s a revealing quote from the president on his political philsosophy:

“[T]he role of government is to stand there and say, ‘We’re going to help you.’ The job of the federal government is to fund the providers who are actually making a difference.”

He’s referring to a government-funded attempt to help people in troubled marriages. It would be hard to think of a realm more private than a marriage, but the president believes that the government has a role there. I’m sure his motives are genuine and sincere. But anyone still deluded in thinking that Bush conservatism means limited government should open their eyes. Bush believes in big government. He just believes it should be funded by debts the next generation will have to pay.

The Washington Post poll shows rising approval of president Bush’s handling of Iraq and terrorism, but a widening lead for John Kerry – eight points if you remove Nader from the survey. Hmm. This graph is particularly striking. I’d say that’s not too good news for the president. On the other hand, the same poll also shows that the economic turn-around is beginning to be felt. The Wall Street Journal equally shows Bush gaining in a handful of swing states – but the movement is all within the margin of error. What to make of all this? Not much at this stage – but the Post’s recording of a big swing away from Bush among independents strikes me as significant. I’m not the only McCainiac rattled by Bush’s growing closeness with the religious right and large errors in the conduct of the war. Of course, we haven’t seen much of Kerry lately either. No wonder the Democrat is moving up.

THE OTHER ABU GHRAIB STORY: I couldn’t agree with Nick Schulz more that the awful record of Saddam in Abu Ghraib merits dissemination in the media. I’m glad that some of the footage was finally shown on Fox News last night. And as readers know, I’ve been in favor of showing as widely as possible the horrors of the enemy. We have to look these monsters squarely in the face and see them for what they are if we are to sustain the morale necessary to keep taking the fight to them. But this does not in any way lessen the need for us to make sure that the U.S. government hasn’t endorsed or practised much milder but still reprehensible abuse and torture. Between those who want to downplay the evil of Saddam and those who want to look the other way at the Bush administration’s own conduct, there must be a middle way.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY: “To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental. To describe it as an exercise in facile crowd-pleasing would be too obvious. Fahrenheit 9/11 is a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness. It is also a spectacle of abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of “dissenting” bravery.” – Hitch, telling it like it is, in Slate. It’s a tour de force, and reminds me that Moore is beneath contempt. Meanwhile, Moore is threatening to sue anyone who criticizes his movie for libel. Shafer eggs him on.

The latest stats from the military’s policy of discharging honest gay soldiers are encouraging in a small way. There’s been a big drop in discharges. Whether this is because a Republican is in the White House (no one did worse than Clinton in this respect) or whether we’re at war and we cannot afford to lose good soldiers is hard to tell. But consider this: in the last five years, we have lost 49 nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare specialists, 90 nuclear power engineers, 52 missile guidance and control operators, 150 rocket, missile and other artillery specialists, and 340 infantrymen. We’ve also lost 88 linguists, many of whom are expert in interrogation. It seems to me that this policy is stupid and cruel in peacetime. It’s madness when we are at war.

EMAIL OF THE DAY: “In regards to your article “Reagan did not give me HIV” on the Advocate website: Huzzah. Every time I see Larry Kramer’s overwrought, specious work, I recall the character of the aunt in the poem “Matilda Who Told Lies and was Burned to Death” (from “Cautionary Tales for Children” by Hilaire Belloc, which is in no way suitable for children). One early stanza in the poem reads:

Matilda told such dreadful lies
it made one gasp and stretch one’s eyes.
Her aunt, who from her earliest youth
had kept a Strict Regard for Truth,
attempted to believe Matilda.
And the effort nearly killed her.

I have no desire that Larry Kramer, who tells lies, be burned to death, but I do sometimes think that he will nearly kill me. I do not even attempt to believe him any more: gay loyalty can only go so far. I welcome that there are writers like you still alive in my community, so that I don’t have to suffer the agony of shame by proxy for being gay like Kramer. I was lucky to have not become infected with HIV; many of my friends and boyfriends and a few of my heroes died from it. The second man whom I ever shared sex with died from AIDS on 25 June 1992. Joe Albanese was a soldier, secret service agent, political operative, and president of the Washington D.C. Gay & Lesbian Community Center. To me he was a loving, supportive friend from the day we met in 1983 until he died, almost 9 years later. I appreciate that you honor him and my other, dead friends, by writing forcefully, temperately, and truthfully.” More feedback on the Letters Page.

Mike Kinsley kills his own editorial. Classic. And good for him. His explanation? “It was an attempt at ironic reflection on the Hollywood decapitation. My editorial page colleagues convinced me it was inappropriate as an editorial. I agonized quite a bit, although looking back the next day, it was a clear case of ‘what on earth was I thinking?'” Now if he were blogging … Sometimes I’m amazed not at my occasional screw-ups, inconsistencies and conflicts … but that I haven’t been guilty of more of them. Hey, it’s a new medium. Cut us some slack.

Eugene Volokh weighs in.

“In a way that occurred before but is rare in the United StateS … somebody came to power as a result of the illegitimate acts of a legitimate institution that had the right to put somebody in power. That is what the Supreme Court did in Bush versus Gore. It put somebody in power. The reason I emphasize that is because that is exactly what happened when Mussolini was put in by the king of Italy. The king of Italy had the right to put Mussolini in, though he had not won an election, and make him prime minister. That is what happened when Hindenburg put Hitler in. I am not suggesting for a moment that Bush is Hitler. I want to be clear on that, but it is a situation which is extremely unusual. When somebody has come in that way, they sometimes have tried not to exercise much power. In this case, like Mussolini, he has exercised extraordinary power. He has exercised power, claimed power for himself; that has not occurred since Franklin Roosevelt who, after all, was elected big and who did some of the same things with respect to assertions of power in times of crisis that this president is doing.” – Guido Calabresi, judge on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

Time reports on the deepening mystery of what really happened at Abu Ghraib. We are getting information that electrocution of genitals, rape and murder are also part of the “coercive interrogation techniques” allowed at Saddam’s former torture-palace. All the more reason to find out if these methods were approved by higher-ups, all the way to the secretary of defense. I will be harangued for continuing to write about this. But it is a huge deal if torture has been sanctioned by this administration in secret and on the authority of only the president, against U.S. and international law. We need to know what is in the April 2003 memo entitled “Coercive Interrogation Techniques approved by the Secretary of Defense.” Did Rumsfeld authorize Abu Ghraib? Is he responsible? Is the administration knowingly scape-goating underlings for doing what they were told? The memo should help clear it up, and presumably exonerate Rumsfeld. So why won’t he clear his name? It should be subpoenaed, if necessary.

THE BBC EXPOSED: If you missed Tom Gross’s astonishing evisceration of the BBC’s news operation, go read it now. It’s devastating – and completely true.

BECAUSE THEY CAN: Don’t miss the Dallas Morning News’ reporting on how child-molesting priests have been protected by the Vatican and moved from country to country to avoid arrest and prosecution. It’s sickening, important and vital to keep our focus on.

THE PARTY OF GOD: Republicanism, reinvented as holy war. Or as close as Karl Rove and Ralph Reed can make it. My latest column on how the GOP is abusing faith for political ends, posted opposite.

APPEASEMENT WATCH: The foreign desk editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer went to Lebanon and Syria and discovered that the people there want to be friends with us – just not with our government. Stefan Sharkansky sticks the boot in.

“I’m so conservative that I approve of San Francisco City Hall marriages, adoption by same-sex couples, and New Hampshire’s recently ordained Episcopal bishop. Gays want to get married, have children, and go to church. Next they’ll be advocating school vouchers, boycotting HBO, and voting Republican. I suppose I should be arguing with my fellow right-wingers about that, and drugs, and many other things. But I won’t be. Arguing, in the sense of attempting to convince others, has gone out of fashion with conservatives. The formats of their radio and television programs allow for little measured debate, and to the extent that evidence is marshaled to support conservative ideas, the tone is less trial of Socrates than Johnnie Cochran summation to the O.J. jury.” – P.J. O’Rourke, in the Atlantic.

QUOTE OF THE DAY II: “Deborah Solomon: You recently created a stir when you defended the interrogation techniques at Abu Ghraib.

Trent Lott: Most of the people in Mississippi came up to me and said: ‘Thank Goodness. America comes first.’ Interrogation is not a Sunday-school class. You don’t get information that will save American lives by withholding pancakes.

DS: But unleashing killer dogs on naked Iraqis is not the same as withholding pancakes.

TL: I was amazed that people reacted like that. Did the dogs bite them? Did the dogs assault them? How are you going to get people to give information that will lead to the saving of lives?” – From the New York Times Magazine.

THE PEACE PROCESS: I have to say I haven’t been so amused in a very long time. At a United Nations ceremony, one of the doves of peace, released by the Sri Lankan public security minister, “was dead before takeoff and ‘dropped like a brick.'” They’re launching an inquiry. Oil for Food program? Billions in kickbacks. Bosnia? Genocide enabled. Dead dove? Priceless.

KRAMER VERSUS SULLIVAN: Larry Kramer calls Reagan Hitler. I respond. In the Advocate. One reason why I was so surprised by Jonah Goldberg’s assertion last week that I was playing to the gay audience with my non-endorsement of Bush is that I have spent much of my career alienating the gay establishment by arguing against some of their shibboleths. I have opposed hate crime laws; I have had reservations about employment non-discrimination laws; I favored the right of the Boy Scouts to practise discrimination (even while I deplored the discrimination itself); I have challenged AIDS orthodoxy: I have battled victimology in the gay world; I endorsed Dole over Clinton in 1996 and Bush over Gore in 2000; I have praised the drug companies’ successes in HIV treatment. Very few members of a minority have been as controversial as I have in the gay world. It just happens that I believe that the Constitution is not the place to decide social policy and that civil marriage is a civil right for all Americans, not just the straight ones. I say that to all audiences. Always.

BLOGGING THE CONVENTIONS? It’s happening. For my part, I think bloggers could make more of a statement by not going to these elaborate infomercials. All they are are schmooze-fests for journalists, pundits and political types and then many layers of corrupting parties for donors. The only political importance is as television shows, and you can better understand that by, er, watching television. New York might be fun – as long as you hang outside with all the left-wing freaks, as opposed to inside with all the right-wing freaks. Am I rationalizing staying in beautiful Ptown? Er, no. Never. Wouldn’t dream of it. Of course not. Are you kidding?

Here’s a list of the occupations of the gay applicants for civil marriage licenses in Massachusetts in the first week:

Acceptance tester, Accounting manager, accounts payable manager, activist, activity director, advertising, administrative assistant, administrator, airline employee, anesthetist, antiques dealer, appraiser, area manager, architect, artisan, artist, arts administrator, assembler, assembly technician, astrologer, at-home mom, athletic coach, athletic trainer, attorney, audiovisual coordinator.

Baker, bank branch manager, bank executive, banquet manager, bartender, billing coordinator, boat builder, book dealer, bookstore manager, buyer.

Cabinet maker, camp director, cantor, career counselor, carpenter, case manager, caterer, cell phone specialist, certified nurse assistant, certified nurse midwife, certified public accountant, chef, chaplain, chief financial officer, chief operating officer, chemist, chemistry professor, child nutrition program specialist, child psychologist, childbirth educator, choreographer, civil engineer, claim analyst, clergy, clerk, clinical chemistry supervisor, clinical coordinator, clinical director, clinical social worker, clinician, college administrator, college professor, community center director, company president, compliance officer, computer analyst, computer consultant, computer programmer, computer specialist, computer systems manager, consultant, contractor, controller, cook, corporate benefits manager, correction officer, cosmetologist, countertop installer, courier, craftmaker, creative arts therapist, creative director, crisis clinician, custodian, customer service.

Data architect, database administrator, designer, desktop publisher, development associate, diagnostic radiological technician, dialysis technician, dietician, director, director of athletics, director of employment, director of membership, director of recreation, director of religious education, director of technology, domestic engineer, draftsman.

Economist, editor, educator, electrical engineer, electrician, electronic technician, emergency room technician, engineer, English professor, entrepreneur, environmental scientist, Episcopal priest, equipment installer, estimator, event planner, executive, executive assistant, executive director, expeditor.

Facilitator, faculty dean, farmer, field service engineer, filmmaker, financial adviser, financial analyst, financial manager, financial representative, firefighter, fitness director, fitness specialist, flight attendant, floral designer, florist, food service manager, forestry technician, fund accountant, fund-raiser, furniture sales.

Gallery owner, gardener, general manager, gifts coordinator, geographic information systems analyst, Girl Scout executive, glazier, goldsmith, golf course superintendent, graphic artist, groomer, group leader, guidance counselor.

Hardware store, hairdresser, hair designer, hair stylist, health and conservation agent, health and safety manager, health care administrator, health care ethicist, health inspector, higher education administrator, historian, history teacher, holistic health counselor, home daycare, homemaker, hospice nurse, hospital administrator, hotel manager, house cleaner, house painter, housewife, human resources, human services director.

Information security consultant, information technology specialist, inspector, insurance adjuster, insurance broker, Internal Revenue Service, inventory control, investment banker.

Jeweler, journalist, judge.

Krispy Kreme manager.

Land surveyor, land use planner, landlord, landscape architect, landscaper, laundry owner, law professor, legal assistant, librarian, library media specialist, library page, literary agent, loan analyst, loan originator, locksmith, logistics manager.

Machine operator, manager, marine biologist, marine service, market research, marketing, massage therapist, medical administrator, media designer, medical technician, mental health counselor, mental health executive, midwife, minister, mortgage banker, muscular therapist, music teacher, musician.

Nanny, newspaper production, network administrator, night receiver, nurse, nurse’s aide, nurse practitioner, nursing home administrator.

Occupational therapist, office clerk, office manager, ophthalmologist, optician, optometric technician, optometrist, orthopedic surgeon.

Packer, painter, paper hanger, paralegal, paramedic, park ranger, parole officer, pastor, pastry chef, PC technician, pediatric rehabilitation aide, percussionist, personal care attendant, pet business owner, pharmaceutical manager, phlebotomist, photographer, physical therapist, physician, physician assistant, picture framer, pilot, pipefitter, pizza maker, planner, plant manager, plumber, point of sale coordinator, police lieutenant, police officer, policy analyst, pool manager, postal worker, preschool teacher, principal, private detective, process consultant, produce manager, product designer, production coordinator, project manager, program manager, property manager, psychologist, psychotherapist, public access coordinator, public health director, public relations, publicist, publishing production manager.

Quality control inspector, quality control supervisor, quality coordinator.

Rabbi, radiologist, real estate broker, real estate director, real estate manager, Realtor, recycling coordinator, registrar, religious educator, registered nurse, reproductive biologist, research analyst, researcher, residential supervisor, respiratory therapist, restaurant manager, restaurateur owner, retail management, retired, risk manager.

Sales person, sales manager, sales rep, school administrator, school counselor, school nurse, school psychologist, scientist, security guard, self-employed, senior research specialist, server, service adviser, service manager, shipper/receiver, shipwright, shopkeeper, short order cook, small business owner, social insurance specialist, social worker, software engineer, software quality engineer, soil scientist, special education advocate, special education teacher, specialty food buyer, speech pathologist, stand-up comic, state trooper, store manager, student, superintendent of schools, supervisor, systems analyst.

Tailor, teacher, tech consultant, technical support engineer, technical writer, technician, telecommunications manager, temp, tennis instructor, tester, therapist, title examiner, training consultant, training manager, translator, transportation engineer, travel agent, travel consultant, triage coordinator, truck driver.

Unemployed, union officer, utility cleaner.

Veterinarian, veterinary technician, victim services advocate, video producer, violin maker, virologist, visual artist, vocational rehab counselor.

Waiter, warehouseman, web developer, web marketing manager, website administrator, welder, writer.

Yoga teacher, youth advocate, youth worker.

Here’s a challenge. Think of any straight person you know who does a job like this. Now imagine telling him or her that he or she has no right to marry, that his or her spouse is a room mate and his or her children can be taken away by relatives or the state at any time. That’s what gay people live with every day. They are treated as sub-human and beneath full citizenship. That must end.