Category: The Dish

A gaffe from Texas governor Rick Perry.

Some see a tightening of the national Congressional race to a 12 point gap. Not this CNN one:

Democrats hold a 20 percentage-point advantage – 58 percent to 38 percent – over Republicans among likely voters in the survey released Monday morning. The Democratic advantage was 11 percentage points – 53 percent to 42 percent – in a poll a week ago.

No predictions here.

A Fox News reporter undergoes a waterboarding:

It’s important to remember that psychologically, he’s in a very different space than prisoners who have no autonomy, and who are not aware that they can stop this at any time. Even so, his conclusion is inescapable:

"As far as torture goes, at least in this controlled experiment, to me this seemed like a pretty efficient mechanism."

It is indeed a pretty efficient torture technique that triggers involuntary extreme panic and fear in order to get information – any information – in order to have it stopped. The legal definition of torture is the infliction of "severe mental or physical pain or suffering" to extract information. The reporter essentially cops to "severe mental suffering" at the very least. I am grateful to Fox for not mincing words. This is torture. That a prisoner can survive it with minimal outward signs of physical harm is one of its benefits for torturers, because they can repeat it endlessly until a human being is still alive but reduced to an empty shell. And that is why the Khmer Rouge used it. And the Soviets. And the Nazis. And George W. Bush.

This is also on the ballot next Tuesday. Do you believe America should torture its military  detainees and terror suspects? Do you believe the president – and the president alone – should  be able to arrest anyone at will, name him or her an "enemy combatant," deny him or her habeas corpus rights, and torture him or her? If you believe he should have that right, vote Republican.

Your vote tomorrow is about more than politics. It is indeed about values, American values.  A vote for the Republicans is a vote for torture. 

Here’s a flyer being distributed by the New York State Republican party:

The Democrats, in other words, want to let a darker-skinned man rape your white wife. You know what? I just found out nothing about Democratic values. But I learned a hell of a lot more about Republican ones.

San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, 4 pm.

A reader writes about servicewoman Alyssa Peterson, whose story can be found here:

When the both of us were in the Defense Language Institute learning Arabic, Alyssa and I talked a lot, sharing the stresses of military training and learning a foreign language in 63 weeks. The most striking things about her were how earnest she was, and how honestly she wrestled with moral issues. She finished training before I did and indeed died in Iraq just before I graduated. 

Of course we heard through the grapevine that it was suicide, but this never sat well with me, given that she was very devout and always cheerful except for when she faced injustice (something that one faces often, in Army training) toward herself or anyone around her.  She was, I felt, too great a soul for her to have killed herself just because her unit’s deployment had been extended as some – especially those who had been discomfited by her honesty – tried to imply.

It is this new story of objection to torture, however, that makes sense to me.  I am glad it has come out.

I am glad too. When you think of American soldiers, remember Pat Tillman and Alyssa Peterson. The flag is still there.

My column on the mid-terms and the choice we face can be read here. Money quote:

America’s founding fathers constructed a system so that if the president would not change a disastrous course, another branch of government could force him. A Democratic Congress would simply put a brake on the Bush express train. It could force the president to start vetoing some spending bills; it could encourage him to appoint moderate justices to the Supreme Court; it could demand an end to torture and a restoration of habeas corpus; it could compel him to be finally accountable for failure in Iraq; and it could investigate some of the many abuses of power that have accumulated during one-party rule.

Whether it does any of these things will be up to the Democratic leadership in both or either House. But that is a good thing too. Especially for the war. The Democrats need to be forced to take responsibility for the war on Islamist terror, to make the hard choices it demands. With a Democratic victory, we may ‚Äî finally ‚Äî have a serious debate about how to do triage in the ravaged country of Iraq, how to grapple with America’s dangerously growing debt, and how to defang the growing menace of Iran. Bush may even have to go back to some of his father’s wise men again, hire a new defense secretary and listen to a military leadership that wants a decent outcome in Iraq.

We may get, in other words, sane conservatism back again. And it may require a big Democratic victory to do it. Given the level of denial in the White House, this is not really an election. It’s more like an intervention. To save Republicanism from Bush, to save Bush from himself, and to save the world from impending crisis.

I occasionally get emails like the one below. I’m publishing it simply to say one thing in this nerve-racked time, especially on the issue of homosexuality. Gay people have the power to transform their own lives – and the world. In fact, only gay people can really accomplish the kind of change on this issue that we need. This revolution does not happen on the streets – but in living rooms and kitchen tables, in offices and schools, at church and at the movies. It’s happening more and more. And the power of honesty is extraordinary:

With your inspiration I found the strength to come out to my mother and father today. I have dreamt of this day for years. I have spent countless nights over the last 15 years (and I am 28 years old) going over in my head how it might be. I have read Virtually Normal three times. I have tons of gay friends and a partner of almost three years.

But finally today, I clutched my copy of Virtually Normal in my childhood bedroom, said a prayer to my God, and walked into my parents’ living room and revealed to them this secret that I have held for too long. I know it will take some time for them to understand, if ever, but I know that the only way that I can live a fulfilling, honest life is to be honest with those who have sacrificed so much for me.

It’s a simple and beautiful way to think of it. I remember another gay man who persuaded me two decades ago to come out to my own parents. He said a simple thing: "Don’t you deserve a mother and father?" At first, I said, well of course I have a mother and father and they love me. And then he said: "But do they really even know you? All of you? How can they love someone if they do not know him? Why are you shutting yourself off from the love of your parents?"

And so I told them. And their love has sustained me for two decades, and still sustains me, and celebrates my relationship. You ask me about Christianity? This is Christianity to me. That’s why that book is dedicated to my mother and my father. I owe them everything. But I once feared their love.

Be not afraid.

An evangelical reflects:

When I see a leader who becomes stubborn and rigid, who becomes increasingly less compassionate toward his adversaries, increasingly tyrannical in his own organization, who rouses anger and arrogance in others, I wonder if he is not generating all of this heat because he is trying so hard to say ‘no’ to something surging deep within his own soul. Are his words and deeds not so much directed against an enemy ‘out there’ as they are against a much more cunning enemy within his own soul. More than once I have visited with pastors who have spent hours immersed in pornography and then gone on to preach their most ‘spirit-filled’ sermons against immorality a day or two later. It‚Äôs a disconnect that boggles the rational mind.

No amount of accountability seems to be adequate to contain a person living with such inner conflict. Neither can it contain a person who needs continuous adrenaline highs to trump the highs of yesterday. Maybe this is one of the geniuses of Jesus: he knew when to stop, how to refuse the cocktail of privilege, fame and applause that distorts one’s ability to think wisely and to master self.

Yes, Jesus knew when to stop. He renounced all earthly power for the cross – to prove God’s love and forgiveness. He could have led a political movement. He refused to. His refusal is at the heart of his message. And all Christians – of all kinds and varieties – need to follow his example again.

Josh Marshall is all over what appears to be a desperate GOP tactic: harassing robocalls. Scroll down for details. More here.